diff --git a/pandas/core/frame.py b/pandas/core/frame.py
index f7f296e822e15..c0e0c2a464a1d 100644
--- a/pandas/core/frame.py
+++ b/pandas/core/frame.py
@@ -3503,15 +3503,18 @@ def combine(self, other, func, fill_value=None):
         -------
         result : DataFrame
         """
-        if other.empty:
-            return self.copy()
 
-        if self.empty:
-            return other.copy()
+        other_idxlen = len(other.index) # save for compare
 
         this, other = self.align(other, copy=False)
         new_index = this.index
 
+        if other.empty and len(new_index) == len(self.index):
+            return self.copy()
+
+        if self.empty and len(other) == other_idxlen:
+            return other.copy()
+
         # sorts if possible
         new_columns = this.columns.union(other.columns)
         do_fill = fill_value is not None
diff --git a/pandas/tests/test_frame.py b/pandas/tests/test_frame.py
index fea84f5a86e36..7f6ee00785501 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/test_frame.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/test_frame.py
@@ -6131,6 +6131,9 @@ def test_combine_first(self):
         comb = self.empty.combine_first(self.frame)
         assert_frame_equal(comb, self.frame)
 
+        comb = self.frame.combine_first(DataFrame(index=["faz","boo"]))
+        self.assertTrue("faz" in comb.index)
+
     def test_combine_first_mixed_bug(self):
         idx = Index(['a','b','c','e'])
         ser1 = Series([5.0,-9.0,4.0,100.],index=idx)