diff --git a/prometheus/counter.go b/prometheus/counter.go
index de30de6da..3668a16b3 100644
--- a/prometheus/counter.go
+++ b/prometheus/counter.go
@@ -140,12 +140,13 @@ func (c *counter) get() float64 {
 }
 
 func (c *counter) Write(out *dto.Metric) error {
-	val := c.get()
-
+	// Read the Exemplar first and the value second. This is to avoid a race condition
+	// where users see an exemplar for a not-yet-existing observation.
 	var exemplar *dto.Exemplar
 	if e := c.exemplar.Load(); e != nil {
 		exemplar = e.(*dto.Exemplar)
 	}
+	val := c.get()
 
 	return populateMetric(CounterValue, val, c.labelPairs, exemplar, out)
 }