diff --git a/Lib/difflib.py b/Lib/difflib.py
index 679bd2a01a1..b43dc970e25 100644
--- a/Lib/difflib.py
+++ b/Lib/difflib.py
@@ -1061,20 +1061,21 @@ class Differ:
         Example:
 
         >>> d = Differ()
-        >>> results = d._qformat('\tabcDefghiJkl\n', '\t\tabcdefGhijkl\n',
-        ...                      '  ^ ^  ^      ', '+  ^ ^  ^      ')
+        >>> results = d._qformat('\tabcDefghiJkl\n', '\tabcdefGhijkl\n',
+        ...                      '  ^ ^  ^      ', '  ^ ^  ^      ')
         >>> for line in results: print repr(line)
         ...
         '- \tabcDefghiJkl\n'
         '? \t ^ ^  ^\n'
-        '+ \t\tabcdefGhijkl\n'
-        '? \t  ^ ^  ^\n'
+        '+ \tabcdefGhijkl\n'
+        '? \t ^ ^  ^\n'
         """
 
         # Can hurt, but will probably help most of the time.
         common = min(_count_leading(aline, "\t"),
                      _count_leading(bline, "\t"))
         common = min(common, _count_leading(atags[:common], " "))
+        common = min(common, _count_leading(btags[:common], " "))
         atags = atags[common:].rstrip()
         btags = btags[common:].rstrip()
 
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_difflib.py b/Lib/test/test_difflib.py
index 83fad1548de..ad5a6b3a0f1 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_difflib.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_difflib.py
@@ -20,6 +20,14 @@ class TestSFbugs(unittest.TestCase):
         diff_gen = difflib.unified_diff([], [])
         self.assertRaises(StopIteration, diff_gen.next)
 
+    def test_added_tab_hint(self):
+        # Check fix for bug #1488943
+        diff = list(difflib.Differ().compare(["\tI am a buggy"],["\t\tI am a bug"]))
+        self.assertEqual("- \tI am a buggy", diff[0])
+        self.assertEqual("?            --\n", diff[1])
+        self.assertEqual("+ \t\tI am a bug", diff[2])
+        self.assertEqual("? +\n", diff[3])
+
 patch914575_from1 = """
    1. Beautiful is beTTer than ugly.
    2. Explicit is better than implicit.
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index fc145168c96..746e3422dd7 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -258,6 +258,8 @@ Core and Builtins
 Library
 -------
 
+- Issue #1488943: difflib.Differ() doesn't always add hints for tab characters
+
 - Issue #5037: Proxy the __unicode__ special method instead to __unicode__
   instead of __str__.