diff --git a/lib/jekyll/excerpt.rb b/lib/jekyll/excerpt.rb
index c181cb68..34a2e65c 100644
--- a/lib/jekyll/excerpt.rb
+++ b/lib/jekyll/excerpt.rb
@@ -118,7 +118,7 @@ module Jekyll
       if tail.empty?
         head
       else
-        "" << head << "\n\n" << tail.scan(%r!^\[[^\]]+\]:.+$!).join("\n")
+        "" << head << "\n\n" << tail.scan(%r!^ {0,3}\[[^\]]+\]:.+$!).join("\n")
       end
     end
   end
diff --git a/test/source/_posts/2016-08-16-indented-link-references.markdown b/test/source/_posts/2016-08-16-indented-link-references.markdown
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..f5366162
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/source/_posts/2016-08-16-indented-link-references.markdown
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+---
+---
+
+This is the first paragraph. It [has][link_0] [lots][link_1] [of][link_2]
+[links][link_3].
+
+This is the second paragraph. It has sample code that should not be extracted:
+
+    [fakelink]: www.invalid.com
+
+And here are the real links:
+
+[link_0]: www.example.com/0
+ [link_1]: www.example.com/1
+  [link_2]: www.example.com/2
+   [link_3]: www.example.com/3
diff --git a/test/test_excerpt.rb b/test/test_excerpt.rb
index b8169794..671d55af 100644
--- a/test/test_excerpt.rb
+++ b/test/test_excerpt.rb
@@ -119,6 +119,32 @@ class TestExcerpt < JekyllUnitTest
           assert @extracted_excerpt.content.include?("http://www.jekyllrb.com/")
         end
       end
+
+      context "with indented link references" do
+        setup do
+          @post = setup_post("2016-08-16-indented-link-references.markdown")
+          @excerpt = @post.excerpt
+        end
+
+        should "contain all refs at the bottom of the page" do
+          (0..3).each do |i|
+            assert_match "[link_#{i}]: www.example.com/#{i}", @excerpt.content
+          end
+        end
+
+        should "ignore indented code" do
+          refute_match "[fakelink]:", @excerpt.content
+        end
+
+        should "render links properly" do
+          @rendered_post = @post.dup
+          do_render(@rendered_post)
+          output = @rendered_post.data["excerpt"].output
+          (0..3).each do |i|
+            assert_includes output, "<a href=\"www.example.com/#{i}\">"
+          end
+        end
+      end
     end
   end
 
diff --git a/test/test_generated_site.rb b/test/test_generated_site.rb
index 8373f0fc..31784054 100644
--- a/test/test_generated_site.rb
+++ b/test/test_generated_site.rb
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ class TestGeneratedSite < JekyllUnitTest
     end
 
     should "ensure post count is as expected" do
-      assert_equal 49, @site.posts.size
+      assert_equal 50, @site.posts.size
     end
 
     should "insert site.posts into the index" do