diff --git a/redis/connection.py b/redis/connection.py
index 790997b8b4..0229d28eed 100755
--- a/redis/connection.py
+++ b/redis/connection.py
@@ -588,7 +588,7 @@ def encode(self, value):
         elif isinstance(value, float):
             value = b(repr(value))
         elif not isinstance(value, basestring):
-            value = str(value)
+            value = unicode(value)
         if isinstance(value, unicode):
             value = value.encode(self.encoding, self.encoding_errors)
         return value
diff --git a/tests/test_encoding.py b/tests/test_encoding.py
index b1df0a56c2..f0c67bec47 100644
--- a/tests/test_encoding.py
+++ b/tests/test_encoding.py
@@ -23,6 +23,13 @@ def test_list_encoding(self, r):
         r.rpush('a', *result)
         assert r.lrange('a', 0, -1) == result
 
+    def test_object_value(self, r):
+        unicode_string = unichr(3456) + u('abcd') + unichr(3421)
+        r['unicode-string'] = Exception(unicode_string)
+        cached_val = r['unicode-string']
+        assert isinstance(cached_val, unicode)
+        assert unicode_string == cached_val
+
 
 class TestCommandsAndTokensArentEncoded(object):
     @pytest.fixture()