diff --git a/lib/jekyll/converters/markdown.rb b/lib/jekyll/converters/markdown.rb
index 14a7d4da..b345b88c 100644
--- a/lib/jekyll/converters/markdown.rb
+++ b/lib/jekyll/converters/markdown.rb
@@ -137,7 +137,7 @@ module Jekyll
             rd = RDiscount.new(content, *@rdiscount_extensions)
             html = rd.to_html
             if rd.generate_toc and html.include?(@config['rdiscount']['toc_token'])
-              html.gsub!(@config['rdiscount']['toc_token'], rd.toc_content)
+              html.gsub!(@config['rdiscount']['toc_token'], rd.toc_content.force_encoding('utf-8'))
             end
             html
           when 'maruku'