diff --git a/python/rpm/__init__.py b/python/rpm/__init__.py
index 54728bb..6d69eda 100644
--- a/python/rpm/__init__.py
+++ b/python/rpm/__init__.py
@@ -61,6 +61,9 @@ except ImportError:
 # backwards compatibility + give the same class both ways
 ts = TransactionSet
 
+def _fakedecode(self, encoding='utf-8', errors='strict'):
+    warnings.warn("decode() called on unicode string, see https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1693751", UnicodeWarning, stacklevel=2)
+    return self
 
 def headerLoad(*args, **kwds):
     """DEPRECATED! Use rpm.hdr() instead."""
diff --git a/python/rpmmodule.c b/python/rpmmodule.c
index f822c2c..b43d7af 100644
--- a/python/rpmmodule.c
+++ b/python/rpmmodule.c
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@
  */
 
 PyObject * pyrpmError;
+PyObject * fakedecode = NULL;
 
 static PyObject * archScore(PyObject * self, PyObject * arg)
 {
diff --git a/python/rpmsystem-py.h b/python/rpmsystem-py.h
index ae9418b..4011ba4 100644
--- a/python/rpmsystem-py.h
+++ b/python/rpmsystem-py.h
@@ -52,12 +52,29 @@ typedef Py_ssize_t (*lenfunc)(PyObject *);
 #define PyInt_AsSsize_t PyLong_AsSsize_t
 #endif
 
+PyObject * fakedecode;
+
 static inline PyObject * utf8FromString(const char *s)
 {
 /* In Python 3, we return all strings as surrogate-escaped utf-8 */
 #if PY_MAJOR_VERSION >= 3
-    if (s != NULL)
-	return PyUnicode_DecodeUTF8(s, strlen(s), "surrogateescape");
+    if (s != NULL) {
+	PyObject *o = PyUnicode_DecodeUTF8(s, strlen(s), "surrogateescape");
+	/* fish the fake decode function from python side if not done yet */
+	if (fakedecode == NULL) {
+	    PyObject *n = PyUnicode_FromString("rpm");
+	    PyObject *m = PyImport_Import(n);
+	    PyObject *md = PyModule_GetDict(m);
+	    fakedecode = PyDict_GetItemString(md, "_fakedecode");
+	    Py_DECREF(m);
+	    Py_DECREF(n);
+	}
+	if (fakedecode && o) {
+	    /* monkey-patch it into the string object as "decode" */
+	    PyDict_SetItemString(Py_TYPE(o)->tp_dict, "decode", fakedecode);
+	}
+	return o;
+    }
 #else
     if (s != NULL)
 	return PyBytes_FromString(s);