diff --git a/paperless.conf.example b/paperless.conf.example
index 48df40ab2..1c62256ab 100644
--- a/paperless.conf.example
+++ b/paperless.conf.example
@@ -143,6 +143,10 @@ PAPERLESS_EMAIL_SECRET=""
 ####                          Software Tweaks                              ####
 ###############################################################################
 
+# When the consumer detects a duplicate document, it will not touch the
+# original document. This default behavior can be changed here.
+#PAPERLESS_CONSUMER_DELETE_DUPLICATES="false"
+
 # After a document is consumed, Paperless can trigger an arbitrary script if
 # you like.  This script will be passed a number of arguments for you to work
 # with.  The default is blank, which means nothing will be executed.  For more
diff --git a/src/documents/consumer.py b/src/documents/consumer.py
index f61d11136..75e6f6120 100755
--- a/src/documents/consumer.py
+++ b/src/documents/consumer.py
@@ -84,6 +84,8 @@ class Consumer:
                 "warning",
                 "Skipping {} as it appears to be a duplicate".format(doc)
             )
+            if settings.CONSUMER_DELETE_DUPLICATES:
+                self._cleanup_doc(doc)
             return False
 
         self.log("info", "Consuming {}".format(doc))
diff --git a/src/paperless/settings.py b/src/paperless/settings.py
index 2c96350dc..06dfdcd84 100644
--- a/src/paperless/settings.py
+++ b/src/paperless/settings.py
@@ -258,6 +258,8 @@ Q_CLUSTER = {
 # Paperless Specific Settings                                                 #
 ###############################################################################
 
+CONSUMER_DELETE_DUPLICATES = __get_boolean("PAPERLESS_CONSUMER_DELETE_DUPLICATES")
+
 # The default language that tesseract will attempt to use when parsing
 # documents.  It should be a 3-letter language code consistent with ISO 639.
 OCR_LANGUAGE = os.getenv("PAPERLESS_OCR_LANGUAGE", "eng")