diff --git a/django/newforms/util.py b/django/newforms/util.py
index 6b101fc152d..a5cc4932ea8 100644
--- a/django/newforms/util.py
+++ b/django/newforms/util.py
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ DEFAULT_ENCODING = 'utf-8' # TODO: First look at django.conf.settings, then fall
 def smart_unicode(s):
     if not isinstance(s, basestring):
         s = unicode(str(s))
-    if not isinstance(s, unicode):
+    elif not isinstance(s, unicode):
         s = unicode(s, DEFAULT_ENCODING)
     return s