diff --git a/community/kernel/src/main/java/org/neo4j/helpers/Exceptions.java b/community/kernel/src/main/java/org/neo4j/helpers/Exceptions.java
index 99184413c05b9..970f2dc64755c 100644
--- a/community/kernel/src/main/java/org/neo4j/helpers/Exceptions.java
+++ b/community/kernel/src/main/java/org/neo4j/helpers/Exceptions.java
@@ -21,6 +21,8 @@
 
 import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
 import java.io.PrintStream;
+import java.io.PrintWriter;
+import java.io.StringWriter;
 import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
 import java.lang.Thread.State;
 import java.lang.reflect.Field;
@@ -150,21 +152,16 @@ public static Throwable rootCause( Throwable caughtException )
         return root;
     }
 
-    public static String stringify( Throwable cause )
+    public static String stringify( Throwable throwable )
     {
-        try
-        {
-            ByteArrayOutputStream bytes = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
-            PrintStream target = new PrintStream( bytes, true,  UTF_8.name() );
-            cause.printStackTrace( target );
-            target.flush();
-            return bytes.toString( UTF_8.name());
-        }
-        catch ( UnsupportedEncodingException e )
+        if ( throwable == null )
         {
-            cause.printStackTrace(System.err);
-            return "[ERROR: Unable to serialize stacktrace, UTF-8 not supported.]";
+            return null;
         }
+
+        StringWriter stringWriter = new StringWriter();
+        throwable.printStackTrace( new PrintWriter( stringWriter ) );
+        return stringWriter.toString();
     }
 
     public static String stringify( Thread thread, StackTraceElement[] elements )
diff --git a/enterprise/ha/src/test/java/org/neo4j/kernel/ha/lock/ClusterLocksIT.java b/enterprise/ha/src/test/java/org/neo4j/kernel/ha/lock/ClusterLocksIT.java
index f2653cb93cad4..673efa64b4c01 100644
--- a/enterprise/ha/src/test/java/org/neo4j/kernel/ha/lock/ClusterLocksIT.java
+++ b/enterprise/ha/src/test/java/org/neo4j/kernel/ha/lock/ClusterLocksIT.java
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@
 
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertNull;
+import static org.neo4j.helpers.Exceptions.stringify;
 import static org.neo4j.kernel.impl.ha.ClusterManager.allSeesAllAsAvailable;
 import static org.neo4j.kernel.impl.ha.ClusterManager.instanceEvicted;
 
@@ -124,7 +125,7 @@ public void run()
         thread.join();
 
         Throwable throwable = ref.get();
-        assertNull( "" + throwable, throwable );
+        assertNull( stringify( throwable ), throwable );
     }
 
     private void takeExclusiveLockOnSameNodeAfterSwitch( Label testLabel, HighlyAvailableGraphDatabase master,