diff --git a/lib/request/direct.py b/lib/request/direct.py
index dd9725375..0c2f63b99 100644
--- a/lib/request/direct.py
+++ b/lib/request/direct.py
@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ def direct(query, content=True):
                 out = list(output)[0][0]
                 if isinstance(out, str):
                     out = utf8decode(out)
-                return out
+                return getUnicode(out)
             else:
                 return list(output)
         else:
diff --git a/plugins/dbms/mysql/filesystem.py b/plugins/dbms/mysql/filesystem.py
index 11ffe9fb7..35fede0de 100644
--- a/plugins/dbms/mysql/filesystem.py
+++ b/plugins/dbms/mysql/filesystem.py
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ class Filesystem(GenericFilesystem):
 
         length = inject.getValue("SELECT LENGTH(%s) FROM %s" % (self.tblField, self.fileTblName), sort=False, resumeValue=False, charsetType=2)
 
-        if not length.isdigit() or not len(length) or length in ( "0", "1" ):
+        if length is None or not length.isdigit() or not len(length) or length in ( "0", "1" ):
             errMsg  = "unable to retrieve the content of the "
             errMsg += "file '%s'" % rFile
             raise sqlmapNoneDataException, errMsg