diff --git a/salt/states/file.py b/salt/states/file.py
index d4688b18f8d6..8daf99c5f08f 100644
--- a/salt/states/file.py
+++ b/salt/states/file.py
@@ -6803,8 +6803,8 @@ def prepend(
         Set this option to ``False`` if you want to change this behavior.
 
     header
-        Forces the text to be prepended if it exists in the file but not at
-        the beginning.
+        Forces the text to be prepended. If it exists in the file but not at
+        the beginning, then it prepends a duplicate.
 
     Multi-line example: