diff --git a/plugins/ingest/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/ingest/IngestDocument.java b/plugins/ingest/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/ingest/IngestDocument.java
index 7a695ce416b..ca4d55ee2db 100644
--- a/plugins/ingest/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/ingest/IngestDocument.java
+++ b/plugins/ingest/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/ingest/IngestDocument.java
@@ -467,12 +467,12 @@ public final class IngestDocument {
                 newPath = path.substring(8, path.length());
             } else {
                 initialContext = sourceAndMetadata;
-                newPath = path;
+                if (path.startsWith("_source.")) {
+                    newPath = path.substring(8, path.length());
+                } else {
+                    newPath = path;
+                }
             }
-            if (newPath.startsWith("_source.")) {
-                newPath = newPath.substring(8, path.length());
-            }
-
             this.pathElements = Strings.splitStringToArray(newPath, '.');
             if (pathElements.length == 0) {
                 throw new IllegalArgumentException("path [" + path + "] is not valid");
diff --git a/plugins/ingest/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/ingest/IngestDocumentTests.java b/plugins/ingest/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/ingest/IngestDocumentTests.java
index 7d9bd58dc79..11ac560fb3e 100644
--- a/plugins/ingest/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/ingest/IngestDocumentTests.java
+++ b/plugins/ingest/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/ingest/IngestDocumentTests.java
@@ -366,6 +366,12 @@ public class IngestDocumentTests extends ESTestCase {
         assertThat(ingestDocument.getSourceAndMetadata().get("_ingest"), equalTo("value"));
     }
 
+    public void testSetIngestSourceObject() {
+        //test that we don't strip out the _source prefix when _ingest is used
+        ingestDocument.setFieldValue("_ingest._source", "value");
+        assertThat(ingestDocument.getIngestMetadata().get("_source"), equalTo("value"));
+    }
+
     public void testSetEmptyPathAfterStrippingOutPrefix() {
         try {
             ingestDocument.setFieldValue("_source.", "value");