diff --git a/spec/edit-session-spec.coffee b/spec/edit-session-spec.coffee
index cd2f50430..2107c3928 100644
--- a/spec/edit-session-spec.coffee
+++ b/spec/edit-session-spec.coffee
@@ -2525,6 +2525,13 @@ describe "EditSession", ->
             editSession.insertText("foo", indentBasis: 5)
             expect(editSession.lineForBufferRow(5)).toBe "  foo    current = items.shift();"
 
+          it "does not adjust the whitespace if there are preceding characters", ->
+            copyText(" foo")
+            editSession.setCursorBufferPosition([5, 30])
+            editSession.pasteText()
+
+            expect(editSession.lineForBufferRow(5)).toBe "      current = items.shift(); foo"
+
         describe "when the inserted text contains newlines", ->
           describe "when the cursor is preceded only by whitespace characters", ->
             it "normalizes indented lines to the cursor's current indentation level", ->
diff --git a/src/cursor.coffee b/src/cursor.coffee
index 4e7402015..551edef0e 100644
--- a/src/cursor.coffee
+++ b/src/cursor.coffee
@@ -466,3 +466,15 @@ class Cursor
   # Returns an {Array} of {String}s.
   getScopes: ->
     @editSession.scopesForBufferPosition(@getBufferPosition())
+
+  # Public: Returns true if this cursor has no non-whitespace characters before
+  # its current position.
+  hasPrecedingCharactersOnLine: ->
+    bufferPosition = @getBufferPosition()
+    line = @editSession.lineForBufferRow(bufferPosition.row)
+    firstCharacterColumn = line.search(/\S/)
+
+    if firstCharacterColumn is -1
+      false
+    else
+      bufferPosition.column > firstCharacterColumn
diff --git a/src/edit-session.coffee b/src/edit-session.coffee
index 42c08c5ff..b12628ba0 100644
--- a/src/edit-session.coffee
+++ b/src/edit-session.coffee
@@ -564,8 +564,11 @@ class EditSession
   pasteText: (options={}) ->
     [text, metadata] = atom.pasteboard.read()
 
+    containsNewlines = text.indexOf('\n') isnt -1
+
     if atom.config.get('editor.normalizeIndentOnPaste') and metadata
-      options.indentBasis ?= metadata.indentBasis
+      if !@getCursor().hasPrecedingCharactersOnLine() or containsNewlines
+        options.indentBasis ?= metadata.indentBasis
 
     @insertText(text, options)