diff --git a/lib/coffee-script/lexer.js b/lib/coffee-script/lexer.js
index 62055335..78e9ec0d 100644
--- a/lib/coffee-script/lexer.js
+++ b/lib/coffee-script/lexer.js
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 // Generated by CoffeeScript 1.5.0-pre
 (function() {
-  var BOOL, CALLABLE, CODE, COFFEE_ALIASES, COFFEE_ALIAS_MAP, COFFEE_KEYWORDS, COMMENT, COMPARE, COMPOUND_ASSIGN, HEREDOC, HEREDOC_ILLEGAL, HEREDOC_INDENT, HEREGEX, HEREGEX_OMIT, IDENTIFIER, INDEXABLE, INVERSES, JSTOKEN, JS_FORBIDDEN, JS_KEYWORDS, LINE_BREAK, LINE_CONTINUER, LOGIC, Lexer, MATH, MULTILINER, MULTI_DENT, NOT_REGEX, NOT_SPACED_REGEX, NUMBER, OPERATOR, REGEX, RELATION, RESERVED, Rewriter, SHIFT, SIMPLESTR, STRICT_PROSCRIBED, TRAILING_SPACES, UNARY, WHITESPACE, compact, count, key, last, starts, _ref, _ref1,
+  var BOOL, CALLABLE, CODE, COFFEE_ALIASES, COFFEE_ALIAS_MAP, COFFEE_KEYWORDS, COMMENT, COMPARE, COMPOUND_ASSIGN, HEREDOC, HEREDOC_ILLEGAL, HEREDOC_INDENT, HEREGEX, HEREGEX_OMIT, IDENTIFIER, INDEXABLE, INVERSES, JSTOKEN, JS_FORBIDDEN, JS_KEYWORDS, LINE_BREAK, LINE_CONTINUER, LITERATE, LOGIC, Lexer, MATH, MULTILINER, MULTI_DENT, NOT_REGEX, NOT_SPACED_REGEX, NUMBER, OPERATOR, REGEX, RELATION, RESERVED, Rewriter, SHIFT, SIMPLESTR, STRICT_PROSCRIBED, TRAILING_SPACES, UNARY, WHITESPACE, compact, count, key, last, starts, _ref, _ref1,
     __indexOf = [].indexOf || function(item) { for (var i = 0, l = this.length; i < l; i++) { if (i in this && this[i] === item) return i; } return -1; };
 
   _ref = require('./rewriter'), Rewriter = _ref.Rewriter, INVERSES = _ref.INVERSES;
@@ -52,8 +52,10 @@
           _results = [];
           for (_i = 0, _len = _ref2.length; _i < _len; _i++) {
             line = _ref2[_i];
-            if (line.substr(0, 4) === '    ') {
+            if (LITERATE.test(line)) {
               _results.push(line.substr(4));
+            } else {
+              _results.push('# ' + line);
             }
           }
           return _results;
@@ -756,6 +758,8 @@
 
   COMMENT = /^###([^#][\s\S]*?)(?:###[^\n\S]*|(?:###)?$)|^(?:\s*#(?!##[^#]).*)+/;
 
+  LITERATE = /^([ ]{4}|\t)/;
+
   CODE = /^[-=]>/;
 
   MULTI_DENT = /^(?:\n[^\n\S]*)+/;
diff --git a/src/lexer.coffee b/src/lexer.coffee
index 3c5f8794..f4e451c2 100644
--- a/src/lexer.coffee
+++ b/src/lexer.coffee
@@ -31,8 +31,8 @@ exports.Lexer = class Lexer
   #
   # Before returning the token stream, run it through the [Rewriter](rewriter.html)
   # unless explicitly asked not to.
-  tokenize: (code, opts = {}) ->    
-    @literate = opts.literate  # Are we lexing literate CoffeeScript?          
+  tokenize: (code, opts = {}) ->
+    @literate = opts.literate  # Are we lexing literate CoffeeScript?
     code      = @clean code    # The stripped, cleaned original source code.
     @line     = opts.line or 0 # The current line.
     @indent   = 0              # The current indentation level.
@@ -62,16 +62,19 @@ exports.Lexer = class Lexer
     @error "missing #{tag}" if tag = @ends.pop()
     return @tokens if opts.rewrite is off
     (new Rewriter).rewrite @tokens
-  
-  # Preprocess the code to remove leading and trailing whitespace, carriage 
-  # returns, etc. If we're lexing literate CoffeeScript, strip external Markdown 
+
+  # Preprocess the code to remove leading and trailing whitespace, carriage
+  # returns, etc. If we're lexing literate CoffeeScript, strip external Markdown
   # by removing all lines that aren't indented by at least four spaces.
   clean: (code) ->
     code = "\n#{code}" if WHITESPACE.test code
     code = code.replace(/\r/g, '').replace TRAILING_SPACES, ''
     if @literate
-      lines = for line in code.split('\n') when line.substr(0, 4) is '    '
-        line.substr(4)
+      lines = for line in code.split('\n')
+        if LITERATE.test line
+          line.substr(4)
+        else
+          '# ' + line
       code = lines.join '\n'
     code
 
@@ -631,6 +634,8 @@ WHITESPACE = /^[^\n\S]+/
 
 COMMENT    = /^###([^#][\s\S]*?)(?:###[^\n\S]*|(?:###)?$)|^(?:\s*#(?!##[^#]).*)+/
 
+LITERATE   = /^([ ]{4}|\t)/
+
 CODE       = /^[-=]>/
 
 MULTI_DENT = /^(?:\n[^\n\S]*)+/