diff --git a/src/QiParsers.h b/src/QiParsers.h
index 1428b6f..b37e147 100644
--- a/src/QiParsers.h
+++ b/src/QiParsers.h
@@ -86,8 +86,6 @@ bsd_strtod(const char* begin, const char** endptr, const char decimal_mark) {
    * Strip off leading blanks and check for a sign.
    */
   p = begin;
-  while (p != *endptr && (*p == ' ' || *p == '\t'))
-    ++p;
   if (p != *endptr && *p == '-') {
     sign = 1;
     ++p;
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-parsing.R b/tests/testthat/test-parsing.R
index 19ab684..e65e097 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-parsing.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-parsing.R
@@ -20,9 +20,7 @@ test_that("parse_guess() guess_max", {
 test_that("parse_guess() trim_ws #32 or tidyverse/readr#1536", {
     expect_equal(parse_guess(c(" 1", "2 ", " 3 "), trim_ws = TRUE), c(1, 2, 3))
     expect_equal(parse_guess(c(" 1", "2 ", " 3 "), trim_ws = FALSE), c(" 1", "2 ", " 3 "))
+    ## exclusive leading and trim_ws = FALSE, won't be parsed as numeric
+    expect_equal(parse_guess(c(" 1", "   2", "     3"), trim_ws = FALSE), c(" 1", "   2", "     3"))
     expect_equal(parse_guess(c(" TRUE", "FALSE ", " T "), trim_ws = TRUE), c(TRUE, FALSE, TRUE))
-    ## integration in type_convert()
-    x <- type_convert(data.frame(a = c("1 ", "  1"), b = c(" 2", "    2")), trim_ws = TRUE)
-    expect_equal(class(x$a), "numeric")
-    expect_equal(class(x$b), "numeric")
 })
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-type-convert.R b/tests/testthat/test-type-convert.R
index 32a2a83..3f643f8 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-type-convert.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-type-convert.R
@@ -77,6 +77,15 @@ test_that("skip behaviors, readr#1509 or minty#20", {
     expect_error(minty::type_convert(text_only, col_types = list("-", "-")), NA)
 })
 
+test_that("type_convert() trim_ws #32 or tidyverse/readr#1536", {
+    ## integration of guess_parse in type_convert()
+    x <- type_convert(data.frame(a = c("1 ", "  1"), b = c(" 2", "    2")), trim_ws = TRUE)
+    expect_equal(class(x$a), "numeric")
+    expect_equal(class(x$b), "numeric")
+    x <- type_convert(data.frame(a = c("  1")), trim_ws = FALSE)
+    expect_equal(class(x$a), "character")
+})
+
 test_that("r_is_string_cpp11", {
     expect_true(r_is_string_cpp11("a"))
     expect_true(r_is_string_cpp11(c("a")))