diff --git a/src/internfile/mh_exec.cpp b/src/internfile/mh_exec.cpp
index 81cbc8cf..d0c321b3 100644
--- a/src/internfile/mh_exec.cpp
+++ b/src/internfile/mh_exec.cpp
@@ -153,17 +153,24 @@ void MimeHandlerExec::finaldetails()
     // cfgFilterOutputCharset comes from the mimeconf filter definition line
     string charset = cfgFilterOutputCharset.empty() ? "utf-8" : 
 	cfgFilterOutputCharset;
+    bool trustcharset = true;
     if (!stringlowercmp("default", charset)) {
 	charset = m_dfltInputCharset;
+	trustcharset = false;
     }
     string mt = cfgFilterOutputMtype.empty() ? "text/html" : 
 	cfgFilterOutputMtype;
-    if (!mt.compare(cstr_textplain) && stringlowercmp("utf-8", charset)) {
+
+    // If this is text/plain and not utf-8 or untrusted, transcode to utf-8.
+    if (!mt.compare(cstr_textplain) && 
+	(!trustcharset || stringlowercmp("utf-8", charset))) {
 	string transcoded;
 	int ecnt;
 	if (!transcode(output, transcoded, charset, "UTF-8", &ecnt)) {
 	    LOGERR(("mh_exec: transcode failed from [%s] to UTF-8\n",
 		    charset.c_str()));
+	    // Erase text in this case: it's garbage
+	    output.clear();
 	} else {
 	    if (ecnt) {
 		LOGDEB(("mh_exec: %d transcoding errors  from [%s] to UTF-8\n",
diff --git a/src/internfile/mh_execm.cpp b/src/internfile/mh_execm.cpp
index 7bf89042..9b2899c9 100644
--- a/src/internfile/mh_execm.cpp
+++ b/src/internfile/mh_execm.cpp
@@ -284,15 +284,37 @@ bool MimeHandlerExecMultiple::next_document()
 
     // Charset. For many document types it doesn't matter. For text
     // and html it does. We supply a default from the
-    // configuration. We should do the text transcoding to utf-8 here
-    // like exec::finaldetails does.
+    // configuration. 
+    bool trustcharset = true;
     if (charset.empty()) {
 	charset = cfgFilterOutputCharset.empty() ? "utf-8" : 
 	    cfgFilterOutputCharset;
 	if (!stringlowercmp("default", charset)) {
+	    trustcharset = false;
 	    charset = m_dfltInputCharset;
 	}
     }
+
+    string& output = m_metaData[cstr_content];
+    if (!m_metaData[cstr_mimetype].compare(cstr_textplain) && 
+	(!trustcharset || stringlowercmp("utf-8", charset))) {
+	string transcoded;
+	int ecnt;
+	if (!transcode(output, transcoded, charset, "UTF-8", &ecnt)) {
+	    LOGERR(("mh_execm: transcode failed from [%s] to UTF-8\n",
+		    charset.c_str()));
+	    // Erase text in this case: it's garbage
+	    output.clear();
+	} else {
+	    if (ecnt) {
+		LOGDEB(("mh_exec: %d transcoding errors  from [%s] to UTF-8\n",
+			ecnt, charset.c_str()));
+	    }
+	    output = transcoded;
+	    charset = "utf-8";
+	}
+    }
+    
     m_metaData[cstr_charset] = charset;
     
     if (eofnext_received)
diff --git a/src/internfile/mh_mail.cpp b/src/internfile/mh_mail.cpp
index e0b8228e..6520e768 100644
--- a/src/internfile/mh_mail.cpp
+++ b/src/internfile/mh_mail.cpp
@@ -259,13 +259,13 @@ bool MimeHandlerMail::processAttach()
     // Special case for text/plain content. Internfile should deal
     // with this but it expects text/plain to be utf-8 already, so we
     // handle the transcoding if needed
-    if (m_metaData[cstr_mimetype] == cstr_textplain && 
-	stringicmp(m_metaData[cstr_charset], "UTF-8")) {
+    if (m_metaData[cstr_mimetype] == cstr_textplain) {
 	string utf8;
 	if (!transcode(body, utf8, m_metaData[cstr_charset], "UTF-8")) {
 	    LOGERR(("  processAttach: transcode to utf-8 failed "
 		    "for charset [%s]\n", m_metaData[cstr_charset].c_str()));
-	    // Just let it through and hope for the best...
+ 	    // can't transcode at all -> data is garbage just erase it
+ 	    body.clear();
 	} else {
 	    body = utf8;
 	}
diff --git a/src/sampleconf/mimeconf b/src/sampleconf/mimeconf
index a9a21aef..1412af5d 100644
--- a/src/sampleconf/mimeconf
+++ b/src/sampleconf/mimeconf
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ application/x-kword = exec rclkwd
 application/x-lyx = exec rcllyx
 application/x-mimehtml = internal message/rfc822
 application/x-perl = internal text/plain
-application/x-rar = execm rclrar
+application/x-rar = execm rclrar;charset=default
 application/x-scribus = exec rclscribus
 application/x-shellscript = internal text/plain
 application/x-tex = exec rcltex
diff --git a/src/utils/transcode.cpp b/src/utils/transcode.cpp
index 35ddd7fd..aec847d7 100644
--- a/src/utils/transcode.cpp
+++ b/src/utils/transcode.cpp
@@ -116,7 +116,13 @@ bool transcode(const string &in, string &out, const string &icode,
 		ip++;isiz--;
 		continue;
 	    }
-	    goto error;
+	    // Normally only EINVAL is possible here: incomplete
+	    // multibyte sequence at the end. This is not fatal. Any
+	    // other is supposedly impossible, we return an error
+	    if (errno == EINVAL)
+		goto out;
+	    else
+		goto error;
 	}
 
 	out.append(obuf, OBSIZ - osiz);
@@ -131,9 +137,11 @@ bool transcode(const string &in, string &out, const string &icode,
     }
 #endif
 
+out:
     ret = true;
 
- error:
+error:
+
     if (icopen) {
 #ifndef ICONV_CACHE_OPEN
 	iconv_close(ic);
diff --git a/tests/txt/txt.sh b/tests/txt/txt.sh
index 2b2ed29e..e1140920 100755
--- a/tests/txt/txt.sh
+++ b/tests/txt/txt.sh
@@ -5,9 +5,11 @@ topdir=`dirname $0`/..
 
 initvariables $0
 
-# Should find the file where its unaccented and the other
-recollq Anemometre 2> $mystderr | 
-	egrep -v '^Recoll query: ' > $mystdout
+# Should find the file where its unaccented and the other and also an instance
+# in misc.zip
+(
+    recollq Anemometre 
+) 2> $mystderr | egrep -v '^Recoll query: ' > $mystdout
 
 diff -w ${myname}.txt $mystdout > $mydiffs 2>&1
 
diff --git a/tests/txt/txt.txt b/tests/txt/txt.txt
index 188294ac..31cd9b51 100644
--- a/tests/txt/txt.txt
+++ b/tests/txt/txt.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
-2 results
+3 results
 text/plain	[file:///home/dockes/projets/fulltext/testrecoll/txt/liste.txt]	[liste.txt]	1182	bytes	
 text/plain	[file:///home/dockes/projets/fulltext/testrecoll/txt/liste1.txt]	[liste1.txt]	893	bytes	
+text/plain	[file:///home/dockes/projets/fulltext/testrecoll/zip/misc.zip]	[misc.zip]	168155	bytes