diff --git a/docs/settings.rst b/docs/settings.rst
index 9997f474..e9bf54ff 100644
--- a/docs/settings.rst
+++ b/docs/settings.rst
@@ -73,8 +73,8 @@ Setting name (default value)                                            What doe
                                                                         original format (e.g. Markdown or ReStructeredText) to the
                                                                         specified OUTPUT_PATH.
 `OUTPUT_SOURCES_EXTENSION` (``.text``)                                  Controls the extension that will be used by the SourcesGenerator.
-                                                                        Defaults to .text. If the first character is not a `.` the
-                                                                        dot character will be prepended to the extension.
+                                                                        Defaults to ``.text``. If not a valid string the default value
+                                                                        will be used.
 `RELATIVE_URLS` (``True``)                                              Defines whether Pelican should use document-relative URLs or
                                                                         not. If set to ``False``, Pelican will use the SITEURL
                                                                         setting to construct absolute URLs.
diff --git a/pelican/settings.py b/pelican/settings.py
index dce1d8ac..cd76aa22 100644
--- a/pelican/settings.py
+++ b/pelican/settings.py
@@ -177,15 +177,10 @@ def configure_settings(settings, default_settings=None, filename=None):
             settings['WEBASSETS'] = False
 
     if 'OUTPUT_SOURCES_EXTENSION' in settings:
-        try:
-            if not isinstance(settings['OUTPUT_SOURCES_EXTENSION'], str):
-                raise ValueError
-            elif '.' is not settings['OUTPUT_SOURCES_EXTENSION'][0]:
-                settings['OUTPUT_SOURCES_EXTENSION'] = '.' + settings['OUTPUT_SOURCES_EXTENSION']
-        except(ValueError, IndexError):
+        if not isinstance(settings['OUTPUT_SOURCES_EXTENSION'], str):
+            settings['OUTPUT_SOURCES_EXTENSION'] = _DEFAULT_CONFIG['OUTPUT_SOURCES_EXTENSION']
             logger.warn("Detected misconfiguration with OUTPUT_SOURCES_EXTENSION."
                        " falling back to the default extension " +
                        _DEFAULT_CONFIG['OUTPUT_SOURCES_EXTENSION'])
-            settings['OUTPUT_SOURCES_EXTENSION'] = _DEFAULT_CONFIG['OUTPUT_SOURCES_EXTENSION']
 
     return settings