diff --git a/llama_cpp/_internals.py b/llama_cpp/_internals.py
index d7409f6..b404601 100644
--- a/llama_cpp/_internals.py
+++ b/llama_cpp/_internals.py
@@ -203,7 +203,7 @@ class _LlamaModel:
         # NOTE: Llama1 models automatically added a space at the start of the prompt
         # this line removes a leading space if the first token is a beginning of sentence token
         return (
-            output[1:] if len(tokens) > 0 and tokens[0] == self.token_bos() else output
+            output[1:] if len(tokens) > 0 and tokens[0] == self.token_bos() and output[0:1] == b' ' else output
         )
 
     # Extra
@@ -812,4 +812,4 @@ class _LlamaSamplingContext:
     def accept(self, ctx_main: _LlamaContext, id: int, apply_grammar: bool):
         if apply_grammar and self.grammar is not None:
             ctx_main.grammar_accept_token(self.grammar, id)
-        self.prev.append(id)
\ No newline at end of file
+        self.prev.append(id)