diff --git a/Lib/xmlrpclib.py b/Lib/xmlrpclib.py
index 586dc4c..ac36b62 100644
--- a/Lib/xmlrpclib.py
+++ b/Lib/xmlrpclib.py
@@ -167,7 +167,7 @@
     # convert to 7-bit ascii if possible
     try:
         return string.decode("ascii")
-    except UnicodeError:
+    except (UnicodeError, TypeError):
         return string
 
 __version__ = "1.0.1"