diff --git a/Lib/doctest.py b/Lib/doctest.py
index bcc200e23e2..3b32004b88b 100644
--- a/Lib/doctest.py
+++ b/Lib/doctest.py
@@ -1323,8 +1323,7 @@ def __patched_linecache_getlines(self, filename, module_globals=None):
         m = self.__LINECACHE_FILENAME_RE.match(filename)
         if m and m.group('name') == self.test.name:
             example = self.test.examples[int(m.group('examplenum'))]
-            source = example.source.encode('ascii', 'backslashreplace')
-            return source.splitlines(True)
+            return example.source.splitlines(True)
         else:
             return self.save_linecache_getlines(filename, module_globals)