diff --git a/spring-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/util/xml/StaxStreamXMLReader.java b/spring-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/util/xml/StaxStreamXMLReader.java
index 26394c56a6..359514b57c 100644
--- a/spring-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/util/xml/StaxStreamXMLReader.java
+++ b/spring-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/util/xml/StaxStreamXMLReader.java
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright 2002-2013 the original author or authors.
+ * Copyright 2002-2014 the original author or authors.
  *
  * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
  * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -211,11 +211,6 @@ class StaxStreamXMLReader extends AbstractStaxXMLReader {
 	}
 
 	private void handleCharacters() throws SAXException {
-		if (getContentHandler() != null && this.reader.isWhiteSpace()) {
-			getContentHandler().ignorableWhitespace(this.reader.getTextCharacters(),
-					this.reader.getTextStart(), this.reader.getTextLength());
-			return;
-		}
 		if (XMLStreamConstants.CDATA == this.reader.getEventType() && getLexicalHandler() != null) {
 			getLexicalHandler().startCDATA();
 		}
diff --git a/spring-core/src/test/java/org/springframework/util/xml/AbstractStaxXMLReaderTestCase.java b/spring-core/src/test/java/org/springframework/util/xml/AbstractStaxXMLReaderTestCase.java
index 3ced43ba0c..d28ad6e34b 100644
--- a/spring-core/src/test/java/org/springframework/util/xml/AbstractStaxXMLReaderTestCase.java
+++ b/spring-core/src/test/java/org/springframework/util/xml/AbstractStaxXMLReaderTestCase.java
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright 2002-2013 the original author or authors.
+ * Copyright 2002-2014 the original author or authors.
  *
  * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
  * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -16,19 +16,22 @@
 
 package org.springframework.util.xml;
 
+import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
 import java.io.InputStream;
-
 import javax.xml.stream.XMLInputFactory;
 import javax.xml.stream.XMLStreamException;
+import javax.xml.transform.Transformer;
+import javax.xml.transform.TransformerFactory;
+import javax.xml.transform.dom.DOMResult;
+import javax.xml.transform.sax.SAXSource;
 
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
 import org.junit.Before;
 import org.junit.Test;
+import static org.mockito.BDDMockito.*;
 import org.mockito.invocation.InvocationOnMock;
 import org.mockito.stubbing.Answer;
-import org.springframework.core.io.ClassPathResource;
-import org.springframework.core.io.Resource;
-import org.springframework.tests.MockitoUtils;
-import org.springframework.tests.MockitoUtils.InvocationArgumentsAdapter;
+import org.w3c.dom.Node;
 import org.xml.sax.Attributes;
 import org.xml.sax.ContentHandler;
 import org.xml.sax.InputSource;
@@ -38,7 +41,10 @@ import org.xml.sax.ext.LexicalHandler;
 import org.xml.sax.helpers.AttributesImpl;
 import org.xml.sax.helpers.XMLReaderFactory;
 
-import static org.mockito.BDDMockito.*;
+import org.springframework.core.io.ClassPathResource;
+import org.springframework.core.io.Resource;
+import org.springframework.tests.MockitoUtils;
+import org.springframework.tests.MockitoUtils.InvocationArgumentsAdapter;
 
 public abstract class AbstractStaxXMLReaderTestCase {
 
@@ -104,6 +110,25 @@ public abstract class AbstractStaxXMLReaderTestCase {
 		verifyIdenticalInvocations(standardContentHandler, contentHandler);
 	}
 
+	@Test
+	public void whitespace() throws Exception {
+		String xml = "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?><test><node1> </node1><node2> Some text </node2></test>";
+
+		Transformer transformer = TransformerFactory.newInstance().newTransformer();
+
+		AbstractStaxXMLReader staxXmlReader = createStaxXmlReader(
+				new ByteArrayInputStream(xml.getBytes("UTF-8")));
+
+		SAXSource source = new SAXSource(staxXmlReader, new InputSource());
+		DOMResult result = new DOMResult();
+
+		transformer.transform(source, result);
+
+		Node node1 = result.getNode().getFirstChild().getFirstChild();
+		assertEquals(" ", node1.getTextContent());
+		assertEquals(" Some text ", node1.getNextSibling().getTextContent());
+	}
+
 	@Test
 	public void lexicalHandler() throws Exception {
 		Resource testLexicalHandlerXml = new ClassPathResource("testLexicalHandler.xml", getClass());
@@ -130,7 +155,7 @@ public abstract class AbstractStaxXMLReaderTestCase {
 		verifyIdenticalInvocations(expectedLexicalHandler, actualLexicalHandler);
 	}
 
-	private final LexicalHandler mockLexicalHandler() throws Exception {
+	private LexicalHandler mockLexicalHandler() throws Exception {
 		LexicalHandler lexicalHandler = mock(LexicalHandler.class);
 		willAnswer(new CopyCharsAnswer()).given(lexicalHandler).comment(any(char[].class), anyInt(), anyInt());
 		return lexicalHandler;
@@ -218,6 +243,9 @@ public abstract class AbstractStaxXMLReaderTestCase {
 		@Override
 		public boolean equals(Object obj) {
 			Attributes other = ((PartialAttributes) obj).attributes;
+			if (this.attributes.getLength() != other.getLength()) {
+				return false;
+			}
 			for (int i = 0; i < other.getLength(); i++) {
 				boolean found = false;
 				for (int j = 0; j < attributes.getLength(); j++) {
diff --git a/spring-core/src/test/resources/org/springframework/util/xml/testContentHandler.xml b/spring-core/src/test/resources/org/springframework/util/xml/testContentHandler.xml
index 27129db12f..062b7b79b9 100644
--- a/spring-core/src/test/resources/org/springframework/util/xml/testContentHandler.xml
+++ b/spring-core/src/test/resources/org/springframework/util/xml/testContentHandler.xml
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
-<h:hello xmlns:h="http://www.greeting.com/hello/" id="a1" h:person="David"><goodbye
-		xmlns="http://www.greeting.com/goodbye/" h:person="Arjen"/></h:hello>
\ No newline at end of file
+<h:hello xmlns:h="http://www.greeting.com/hello/" id="a1" h:person="David"><prefix:goodbye
+		xmlns:prefix="http://www.greeting.com/goodbye/" h:person="Arjen"> Some text </prefix:goodbye><h:so-long> </h:so-long></h:hello>
\ No newline at end of file