diff --git a/smack-extensions/src/main/java/org/jivesoftware/smackx/muc/MultiUserChat.java b/smack-extensions/src/main/java/org/jivesoftware/smackx/muc/MultiUserChat.java
index d951dc33c..22727c931 100644
--- a/smack-extensions/src/main/java/org/jivesoftware/smackx/muc/MultiUserChat.java
+++ b/smack-extensions/src/main/java/org/jivesoftware/smackx/muc/MultiUserChat.java
@@ -211,13 +211,16 @@ public class MultiUserChat {
 
                 switch (presence.getType()) {
                 case available:
-                    Presence oldPresence = occupantsMap.put(from, presence);
-                    if (mucUser.getStatus().contains(MUCUser.Status.PRESENCE_TO_SELF_110)) {
+                    if (!processedReflectedSelfPresence
+                                    && mucUser.getStatus().contains(MUCUser.Status.PRESENCE_TO_SELF_110)) {
                         processedReflectedSelfPresence = true;
                         synchronized (this) {
                             notify();
                         }
-                    } else if (oldPresence != null) {
+                    }
+
+                    Presence oldPresence = occupantsMap.put(from, presence);
+                    if (oldPresence != null) {
                         // Get the previous occupant's affiliation & role
                         MUCUser mucExtension = MUCUser.from(oldPresence);
                         MUCAffiliation oldAffiliation = mucExtension.getItem().getAffiliation();
diff --git a/smack-extensions/src/main/java/org/jivesoftware/smackx/pubsub/provider/ItemProvider.java b/smack-extensions/src/main/java/org/jivesoftware/smackx/pubsub/provider/ItemProvider.java
index 4c7d0e7ce..5842fda91 100644
--- a/smack-extensions/src/main/java/org/jivesoftware/smackx/pubsub/provider/ItemProvider.java
+++ b/smack-extensions/src/main/java/org/jivesoftware/smackx/pubsub/provider/ItemProvider.java
@@ -50,24 +50,25 @@ public class ItemProvider extends ExtensionElementProvider<Item>  {
         String xmlns = parser.getNamespace();
         ItemNamespace itemNamespace = ItemNamespace.fromXmlns(xmlns);
 
-        XmlPullParser.Event tag = parser.next();
+        XmlPullParser.TagEvent event = parser.nextTag();
+        switch (event) {
+            case START_ELEMENT:
+                String payloadElemName = parser.getName();
+                String payloadNS = parser.getNamespace();
 
-        if (tag == XmlPullParser.Event.END_ELEMENT)  {
-            return new Item(itemNamespace, id, node);
-        }
-        else {
-            String payloadElemName = parser.getName();
-            String payloadNS = parser.getNamespace();
-
-            final ExtensionElementProvider<ExtensionElement> extensionProvider = ProviderManager.getExtensionProvider(payloadElemName, payloadNS);
-            if (extensionProvider == null) {
-                // TODO: Should we use StandardExtensionElement in this case? And probably remove SimplePayload all together.
-                CharSequence payloadText = PacketParserUtils.parseElement(parser, true);
-                return new PayloadItem<>(itemNamespace, id, node, new SimplePayload(payloadText.toString()));
-            }
-            else {
-                return new PayloadItem<>(itemNamespace, id, node, extensionProvider.parse(parser));
-            }
+                final ExtensionElementProvider<ExtensionElement> extensionProvider = ProviderManager.getExtensionProvider(payloadElemName, payloadNS);
+                if (extensionProvider == null) {
+                    // TODO: Should we use StandardExtensionElement in this case? And probably remove SimplePayload all together.
+                    CharSequence payloadText = PacketParserUtils.parseElement(parser, true);
+                    return new PayloadItem<>(itemNamespace, id, node, new SimplePayload(payloadText.toString()));
+                }
+                else {
+                    return new PayloadItem<>(itemNamespace, id, node, extensionProvider.parse(parser));
+                }
+            case END_ELEMENT:
+                return new Item(itemNamespace, id, node);
+            default:
+                throw new AssertionError("unknown: " + event);
         }
     }
 
diff --git a/smack-extensions/src/test/java/org/jivesoftware/smackx/pubsub/provider/ItemProviderTest.java b/smack-extensions/src/test/java/org/jivesoftware/smackx/pubsub/provider/ItemProviderTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e7348e920
--- /dev/null
+++ b/smack-extensions/src/test/java/org/jivesoftware/smackx/pubsub/provider/ItemProviderTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+/**
+ *
+ * Copyright 2021 Florian Schmaus
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package org.jivesoftware.smackx.pubsub.provider;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+
+import org.jivesoftware.smack.parsing.SmackParsingException;
+import org.jivesoftware.smack.test.util.SmackTestUtil;
+import org.jivesoftware.smack.xml.XmlPullParserException;
+
+import org.junit.jupiter.params.ParameterizedTest;
+import org.junit.jupiter.params.provider.EnumSource;
+
+public class ItemProviderTest {
+
+    /**
+     * Check that {@link ItemProvider} is able to parse items which have whitespace before their Payload.
+     *
+     * @param parserKind the used parser Kind
+     * @throws XmlPullParserException if an XML pull parser exception occurs.
+     * @throws IOException if an IO exception occurs.
+     * @throws SmackParsingException if an Smack parsing exception occurs.
+     * @see <a href="https://igniterealtime.atlassian.net/jira/software/c/projects/SMACK/issues/SMACK-918">SMACK-918</a>
+     */
+    @ParameterizedTest
+    @EnumSource(SmackTestUtil.XmlPullParserKind.class)
+    public void whitespaceBeforeItemPayload(SmackTestUtil.XmlPullParserKind parserKind) throws XmlPullParserException, IOException, SmackParsingException {
+        String item = "<item id='13a3710c-68c3-4da2-8484-d8d9c77af91e' xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/pubsub#event'>"
+                    + "\n <geoloc xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/geoloc' xml:lang='en'/>"
+                    + "</item>";
+        SmackTestUtil.parse(item, ItemProvider.class, parserKind);
+    }
+
+}