diff --git a/src/main/java/org/scijava/annotations/IndexReader.java b/src/main/java/org/scijava/annotations/IndexReader.java
index a08fad8c5..3121bf4c1 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/scijava/annotations/IndexReader.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/scijava/annotations/IndexReader.java
@@ -73,6 +73,7 @@ class IndexReader {
 
 	public Object next() throws IOException {
 		int c = in.read();
+		while (Character.isWhitespace(c)) c = in.read();
 		if (c < 0) {
 			return null;
 		}