diff --git a/src/protocols/MQTT/MQTT.cpp b/src/protocols/MQTT/MQTT.cpp
index cb62321c..fb4791f7 100644
--- a/src/protocols/MQTT/MQTT.cpp
+++ b/src/protocols/MQTT/MQTT.cpp
@@ -411,10 +411,11 @@ int16_t MQTTClient::check(void (*func)(const char*, const char*)) {
   _tl->receive(dataIn, numBytes);
   if(dataIn[0] == MQTT_PUBLISH << 4) {
     // TODO: properly decode remaining length
-    uint8_t remainingLength = dataIn[1];
+    uint8_t remLenFieldLen = 0;
+    uint32_t remainingLength = decodeLength(dataIn + 1, remLenFieldLen);
 
     // get the topic
-    size_t topicLength = dataIn[3] | dataIn[2] << 8;
+    size_t topicLength = dataIn[remLenFieldLen + 2] | dataIn[remLenFieldLen + 1] << 8;
     char* topic = new char[topicLength + 1];
     memcpy(topic, dataIn + 4, topicLength);
     topic[topicLength] = 0x00;
@@ -422,7 +423,7 @@ int16_t MQTTClient::check(void (*func)(const char*, const char*)) {
     // get the message
     size_t messageLength = remainingLength - topicLength - 2;
     char* message = new char[messageLength + 1];
-    memcpy(message, dataIn + 4 + topicLength, messageLength);
+    memcpy(message, dataIn + remLenFieldLen + 3 + topicLength, messageLength);
     message[messageLength] = 0x00;
 
     // execute the callback function provided by user
@@ -452,7 +453,7 @@ size_t MQTTClient::encodeLength(uint32_t len, uint8_t* encoded) {
   return(i);
 }
 
-uint32_t MQTTClient::decodeLength(uint8_t* encoded) {
+uint32_t MQTTClient::decodeLength(uint8_t* encoded, uint8_t& numBytes) {
   // algorithm to decode packet length as per MQTT specification 3.1.1
   uint32_t mult = 1;
   uint32_t len = 0;
@@ -464,7 +465,8 @@ uint32_t MQTTClient::decodeLength(uint8_t* encoded) {
       // malformed remaining length
       return(0);
     }
-  } while((encoded[i] & 128) != 0);
+  } while((encoded[i++] & 128) != 0);
+  numBytes = i;
   return len;
 }
 
diff --git a/src/protocols/MQTT/MQTT.h b/src/protocols/MQTT/MQTT.h
index 87b8444d..6f21f585 100644
--- a/src/protocols/MQTT/MQTT.h
+++ b/src/protocols/MQTT/MQTT.h
@@ -139,7 +139,7 @@ class MQTTClient {
     uint16_t _packetId;
 
     static size_t encodeLength(uint32_t len, uint8_t* encoded);
-    static uint32_t decodeLength(uint8_t* encoded);
+    static uint32_t decodeLength(uint8_t* encoded, uint8_t& numBytes);
 };
 
 #endif