diff --git a/apply.c b/apply.c
index 768b572a81..f11fb18b69 100644
--- a/apply.c
+++ b/apply.c
@@ -1333,7 +1333,7 @@ static int apply_line(char *output, const char *patch, int plen)
 
 static int apply_one_fragment(struct buffer_desc *desc, struct fragment *frag)
 {
-	int match_end;
+	int match_beginning, match_end;
 	char *buf = desc->buffer;
 	const char *patch = frag->patch;
 	int offset, size = frag->size;
@@ -1398,9 +1398,10 @@ static int apply_one_fragment(struct buffer_desc *desc, struct fragment *frag)
 	trailing = frag->trailing;
 
 	/*
-	 * If we don't have any trailing data in the patch,
-	 * we want it to match at the end of the file.
+	 * If we don't have any leading/trailing data in the patch,
+	 * we want it to match at the beginning/end of the file.
 	 */
+	match_beginning = !leading && (frag->oldpos == 1);
 	match_end = !trailing;
 
 	lines = 0;
@@ -1409,6 +1410,8 @@ static int apply_one_fragment(struct buffer_desc *desc, struct fragment *frag)
 		offset = find_offset(buf, desc->size, oldlines, oldsize, pos, &lines);
 		if (match_end && offset + oldsize != desc->size)
 			offset = -1;
+		if (match_beginning && offset)
+			offset = -1;
 		if (offset >= 0) {
 			int diff = newsize - oldsize;
 			unsigned long size = desc->size + diff;
@@ -1438,8 +1441,8 @@ static int apply_one_fragment(struct buffer_desc *desc, struct fragment *frag)
 		/* Am I at my context limits? */
 		if ((leading <= p_context) && (trailing <= p_context))
 			break;
-		if (match_end) {
-			match_end = 0;
+		if (match_beginning || match_end) {
+			match_beginning = match_end = 0;
 			continue;
 		}
 		/* Reduce the number of context lines
diff --git a/t/t4113-apply-ending.sh b/t/t4113-apply-ending.sh
index d021ae84c3..7fd0cf62ec 100755
--- a/t/t4113-apply-ending.sh
+++ b/t/t4113-apply-ending.sh
@@ -29,7 +29,25 @@ test_expect_success setup \
 
 # test
 
-test_expect_failure apply \
+test_expect_failure 'apply at the end' \
     'git-apply --index test-patch'
 
+cat >test-patch <<\EOF
+diff a/file b/file
+--- a/file
++++ b/file
+@@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
++a
+ b
+ c
+EOF
+
+echo >file 'a
+b
+c'
+git-update-index file
+
+test_expect_failure 'apply at the beginning' \
+	'git-apply --index test-patch'
+
 test_done