diff --git a/extra/safe2bin/safe2bin.py b/extra/safe2bin/safe2bin.py
index a2242fe15..bad03a8d2 100644
--- a/extra/safe2bin/safe2bin.py
+++ b/extra/safe2bin/safe2bin.py
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ def safecharencode(value):
             for char in SAFE_ENCODE_SLASH_REPLACEMENTS:
                 retVal = retVal.replace(char, repr(char).strip('\''))
 
-            retVal = reduce(lambda x, y: x + (y if (y in string.printable or ord(y) > 255) else '\\x%02x' % ord(y)), retVal, (unicode if isinstance(value, unicode) else str)())
+            retVal = reduce(lambda x, y: x + (y if (y in string.printable or isinstance(value, unicode) and ord(y) >= 160) else '\\x%02x' % ord(y)), retVal, (unicode if isinstance(value, unicode) else str)())
 
             retVal = retVal.replace(SLASH_MARKER, "\\\\")
     elif isinstance(value, list):