diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/LoadProperties.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/LoadProperties.java
index 0fbaf0fee..964d1db69 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/LoadProperties.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/LoadProperties.java
@@ -168,7 +168,7 @@ public class LoadProperties extends Task {
                 if (!text.endsWith("\n")) {
                     text = text + "\n";
                 }
-                tis = new ByteArrayInputStream(text.getBytes());
+                tis = new ByteArrayInputStream(text.getBytes("ISO8859_1"));
                 final Properties props = new Properties();
                 props.load(tis);