diff --git a/src/org/jruby/RubyIO.java b/src/org/jruby/RubyIO.java
index ca03a5e375d..ba1ebe9d146 100644
--- a/src/org/jruby/RubyIO.java
+++ b/src/org/jruby/RubyIO.java
@@ -3056,7 +3056,12 @@ public static IRubyObject read(ThreadContext context, IRubyObject recv, IRubyObj
        
         try {
             if (!arg1.isNil()) {
-                return file.read(context, arg1);
+                if (arg1 instanceof RubyInteger) {
+                    return file.read(context, arg1);
+                } else {
+                    // TODO: hash args for encoding, etc, are not yet supported; ignore
+                    return file.read(context);
+                }
             } else {
                 return file.read(context);
             }