diff --git a/PIL/PpmImagePlugin.py b/PIL/PpmImagePlugin.py
index 26f8e70f9..c7c9c2eb4 100644
--- a/PIL/PpmImagePlugin.py
+++ b/PIL/PpmImagePlugin.py
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ from PIL import Image, ImageFile
 #
 # --------------------------------------------------------------------
 
-b_whitespace = string.whitespace.encode()
+b_whitespace = string.whitespace.encode('ascii','ignore')
 
 MODES = {
     # standard
diff --git a/Tests/test_locale.py b/Tests/test_locale.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..2683c561b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Tests/test_locale.py
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+from tester import *
+from PIL import Image
+
+import locale
+
+# ref https://github.com/python-imaging/Pillow/issues/272
+## on windows, in polish locale:
+
+## import locale
+## print locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, 'polish')
+## import string
+## print len(string.whitespace)
+## print ord(string.whitespace[6])
+
+## Polish_Poland.1250
+## 7
+## 160
+
+# one of string.whitespace is not freely convertable into ascii. 
+
+path = "Images/lena.jpg"
+
+def test_sanity():
+    assert_no_exception(lambda: Image.open(path))
+    try:
+        locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, "polish")
+    except:
+        skip('polish locale not available')
+    import string
+    assert_no_exception(lambda: Image.open(path))
+