diff --git a/frappe/email/receive.py b/frappe/email/receive.py
index a95975c4b0..2148e27520 100644
--- a/frappe/email/receive.py
+++ b/frappe/email/receive.py
@@ -481,10 +481,7 @@ class Email:
 		"""Detect chartset."""
 		charset = part.get_content_charset()
 		if not charset:
-			if six.PY2:
-				charset = chardet.detect(str(part))['encoding']
-			else:
-				charset = chardet.detect(part.encode())['encoding']
+			charset = chardet.detect(frappe.safe_encode(part))['encoding']
 
 		return charset