diff --git a/lib/tokenize.cpp b/lib/tokenize.cpp
index a90489e94..26be867a0 100644
--- a/lib/tokenize.cpp
+++ b/lib/tokenize.cpp
@@ -5805,6 +5805,18 @@ bool Tokenizer::simplifyKnownVariables()
                 const Token * const vartok = (tok->next() && tok->next()->str() == "const") ? tok->tokAt(2) : tok->next();
                 const Token * const valuetok = vartok->tokAt(2);
                 if (Token::Match(valuetok, "%bool%|%char%|%num%|%str% ;")) {
+                    //check if there's not a reference usage inside the code
+                    bool withreference = false;
+                    for (const Token *tok2 = valuetok->tokAt(2); tok2; tok2 = tok2->next()) {
+                        if (Token::Match(tok2,"(|[|,|{|=|return|%op% & %varid%", vartok->varId())) {
+                            withreference = true;
+                            break;
+                        }
+                    }
+                    //don't simplify 'f(&x)' to 'f(&100)'
+                    if (withreference)
+                        continue;
+
                     constantValues[vartok->varId()] = valuetok->str();
 
                     // remove statement
diff --git a/test/testtokenize.cpp b/test/testtokenize.cpp
index aeecc2680..ad21596b8 100644
--- a/test/testtokenize.cpp
+++ b/test/testtokenize.cpp
@@ -2518,6 +2518,26 @@ private:
                                     "}";
             ASSERT_EQUALS(expected, tokenizeAndStringify(code, true));
         }
+        {
+            //don't simplify '&x'!
+            const char code[] = "const char * foo ( ) {\n"
+                                "const char x1 = 'b' ;\n"
+                                "f ( & x1 ) ;\n"
+                                "const char x2 = 'b' ;\n"
+                                "f ( y , & x2 ) ;\n"
+                                "const char x3 = 'b' ;\n"
+                                "t = & x3 ;\n"
+                                "const char x4 = 'b' ;\n"
+                                "t = y + & x4 ;\n"
+                                "const char x5 = 'b' ;\n"
+                                "z [ & x5 ] = y ;\n"
+                                "const char x6 = 'b' ;\n"
+                                "v = { & x6 } ;\n"
+                                "const char x7 = 'b' ;\n"
+                                "return & x7 ;\n"
+                                "}";
+            ASSERT_EQUALS(code, tokenizeAndStringify(code, true));
+        }
     }
 
     void simplifyKnownVariablesIfEq1() {