diff --git a/core/parser/morphik_parser.py b/core/parser/morphik_parser.py
index 7e781f7e..0e79100f 100644
--- a/core/parser/morphik_parser.py
+++ b/core/parser/morphik_parser.py
@@ -76,8 +76,9 @@ def _split_recursive(self, text: str, separators: list[str]) -> list[str]:
             splits = list(text)
         chunks = []
         current = ""
-        for part in splits:
-            add_part = part + (sep if sep and part != splits[-1] else "")
+        last_index = len(splits) - 1
+        for index, part in enumerate(splits):
+            add_part = part + (sep if sep and index != last_index else "")
             if self.length_function(current + add_part) > self.chunk_size:
                 if current:
                     chunks.append(current)
diff --git a/core/tests/unit/test_recursive_text_splitter.py b/core/tests/unit/test_recursive_text_splitter.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..5ecd4dd2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/tests/unit/test_recursive_text_splitter.py
@@ -0,0 +1,112 @@
+"""Unit tests for the RecursiveCharacterTextSplitter used by StandardChunker.
+
+The splitter is defined inside ``core.parser.morphik_parser`` which imports heavy
+optional dependencies (docling, openpyxl, ...). We stub those modules so the pure
+chunking logic can be exercised in isolation.
+"""
+
+import sys
+import types
+
+import pytest
+
+
+MODULE_UNDER_TEST = "core.parser.morphik_parser"
+
+
+def _drop_module(name):
+    sys.modules.pop(name, None)
+    if "." not in name:
+        return
+    parent_name, attr_name = name.rsplit(".", 1)
+    parent = sys.modules.get(parent_name)
+    if parent is not None and hasattr(parent, attr_name):
+        delattr(parent, attr_name)
+
+
+def _stub_module(monkeypatch, name):
+    module = types.ModuleType(name)
+    module.__path__ = []
+    monkeypatch.setitem(sys.modules, name, module)
+    if "." in name:
+        parent_name, attr_name = name.rsplit(".", 1)
+        parent = sys.modules.get(parent_name)
+        if parent is not None:
+            monkeypatch.setattr(parent, attr_name, module, raising=False)
+    return module
+
+
+def _install_dependency_stubs(monkeypatch):
+    _stub_module(monkeypatch, "docling")
+    _stub_module(monkeypatch, "docling.datamodel")
+    docling_base_models = _stub_module(monkeypatch, "docling.datamodel.base_models")
+    docling_base_models.InputFormat = types.SimpleNamespace(PDF="pdf")
+
+    docling_pipeline_options = _stub_module(monkeypatch, "docling.datamodel.pipeline_options")
+    docling_pipeline_options.PdfPipelineOptions = type("PdfPipelineOptions", (), {})
+    docling_pipeline_options.EasyOcrOptions = type("EasyOcrOptions", (), {})
+    docling_pipeline_options.TableStructureOptions = type("TableStructureOptions", (), {})
+
+    docling_document_converter = _stub_module(monkeypatch, "docling.document_converter")
+    docling_document_converter.DocumentConverter = type(
+        "DocumentConverter", (), {"__init__": lambda self, *a, **kw: None}
+    )
+    docling_document_converter.PdfFormatOption = type(
+        "PdfFormatOption", (), {"__init__": lambda self, *a, **kw: None}
+    )
+
+    assemblyai = _stub_module(monkeypatch, "assemblyai")
+    assemblyai.settings = types.SimpleNamespace(api_key=None)
+    assemblyai.Transcript = type("Transcript", (), {})
+    assemblyai.TranscriptionConfig = type("TranscriptionConfig", (), {"__init__": lambda self, *a, **kw: None})
+    assemblyai.Transcriber = type("Transcriber", (), {"__init__": lambda self, *a, **kw: None})
+
+    cv2 = _stub_module(monkeypatch, "cv2")
+    cv2.CAP_PROP_FPS = 0
+    cv2.CAP_PROP_FRAME_COUNT = 1
+    cv2.VideoCapture = lambda path: None
+
+    _stub_module(monkeypatch, "litellm")
+    _stub_module(monkeypatch, "openpyxl")
+
+    filetype = _stub_module(monkeypatch, "filetype")
+    filetype.guess = lambda content: None
+
+
+@pytest.fixture
+def splitter_cls(monkeypatch):
+    _drop_module(MODULE_UNDER_TEST)
+    _install_dependency_stubs(monkeypatch)
+
+    from core.parser.morphik_parser import RecursiveCharacterTextSplitter
+
+    yield RecursiveCharacterTextSplitter
+
+    _drop_module(MODULE_UNDER_TEST)
+
+
+def test_duplicate_token_keeps_word_boundary(splitter_cls):
+    """A token that also equals the final token must not lose its trailing separator.
+
+    Regression: the old code compared ``part != splits[-1]`` by value, so the first
+    "cat" had its separator dropped and got merged into the next word ("catdog").
+    """
+    splitter = splitter_cls(chunk_size=8, chunk_overlap=0, separators=[" ", ""])
+    chunks = [chunk.content for chunk in splitter.split_text("cat dog bird cat")]
+
+    rejoined = "".join(chunks)
+    assert "catdog" not in rejoined
+    assert "cat dog" in rejoined
+    # The reconstructed text must contain every original word with boundaries intact.
+    for word in ("cat", "dog", "bird"):
+        assert word in rejoined.split()
+
+
+def test_no_separator_loss_on_repeated_tokens(splitter_cls):
+    """Repeated tokens elsewhere in the text keep their separators too."""
+    splitter = splitter_cls(chunk_size=12, chunk_overlap=0, separators=[" ", ""])
+    chunks = [chunk.content for chunk in splitter.split_text("the quick fox the")]
+
+    rejoined = "".join(chunks)
+    assert "thequick" not in rejoined
+    assert rejoined.split() == ["the", "quick", "fox", "the"]