diff --git a/src/collection.cpp b/src/collection.cpp
index 93f72334..4cc94ae7 100644
--- a/src/collection.cpp
+++ b/src/collection.cpp
@@ -1784,12 +1784,15 @@ void Collection::parse_search_query(const std::string &query, std::vector<std::s
         bool phrase_search_op_prior = false;
         std::vector<std::string> phrase;
 
+        auto symbols_to_index_has_minus =
+                std::find(symbols_to_index.begin(), symbols_to_index.end(), '-') != symbols_to_index.end();
+
         for(auto& token: tokens) {
             bool end_of_phrase = false;
 
-            if(token == "-") {
+            if(token == "-" && !symbols_to_index_has_minus) {
                 continue;
-            } else if(token[0] == '-') {
+            } else if(token[0] == '-' && !symbols_to_index_has_minus) {
                 exclude_operator_prior = true;
                 token = token.substr(1);
             }
diff --git a/test/collection_specific_more_test.cpp b/test/collection_specific_more_test.cpp
index 2b7d067e..eaa91a2d 100644
--- a/test/collection_specific_more_test.cpp
+++ b/test/collection_specific_more_test.cpp
@@ -958,3 +958,36 @@ TEST_F(CollectionSpecificMoreTest, FieldWeightNormalization) {
 
     collectionManager.drop_collection("coll1");
 }
+
+TEST_F(CollectionSpecificMoreTest, SearchingForMinusCharacter) {
+    // when the minus character is part of symbols_to_index it should not be used as exclusion operator
+    std::vector<field> fields = {field("name", field_types::STRING, false),
+                                 field("points", field_types::INT32, false),};
+
+    Collection* coll1 = collectionManager.create_collection(
+        "coll1", 1, fields, "points", 0, "", {"-"}, {}
+    ).get();
+
+    nlohmann::json doc1;
+    doc1["name"] = "y = -x + 3 + 2 * x";
+    doc1["points"] = 100;
+
+    ASSERT_TRUE(coll1->add(doc1.dump()).ok());
+
+    doc1["name"] = "foo bar";
+    ASSERT_TRUE(coll1->add(doc1.dump()).ok());
+
+    auto results = coll1->search("-x + 3", {"name"},
+                                 "", {}, {}, {0}, 10,
+                                 1, FREQUENCY, {true},
+                                 0).get();
+
+    ASSERT_EQ(1, results["hits"].size());
+
+    results = coll1->search("-", {"name"},
+                            "", {}, {}, {0}, 10,
+                            1, FREQUENCY, {true},
+                            0).get();
+
+    ASSERT_EQ(1, results["hits"].size());
+}