diff --git a/imageio/imageio-tiff/src/main/java/com/twelvemonkeys/imageio/plugins/tiff/CCITTFaxDecoderStream.java b/imageio/imageio-tiff/src/main/java/com/twelvemonkeys/imageio/plugins/tiff/CCITTFaxDecoderStream.java
index ae5eb26e..34a0e9e3 100644
--- a/imageio/imageio-tiff/src/main/java/com/twelvemonkeys/imageio/plugins/tiff/CCITTFaxDecoderStream.java
+++ b/imageio/imageio-tiff/src/main/java/com/twelvemonkeys/imageio/plugins/tiff/CCITTFaxDecoderStream.java
@@ -154,7 +154,7 @@ final class CCITTFaxDecoderStream extends FilterInputStream {
         }
 
         boolean white = true;
-        int index = -1;
+        int index = 0;
         changesCurrentRowCount = 0;
         mode: while (index < columns) {
             // read mode