diff --git a/src/allmydata/scripts/common.py b/src/allmydata/scripts/common.py
index ae9d78db7..58c7e33db 100644
--- a/src/allmydata/scripts/common.py
+++ b/src/allmydata/scripts/common.py
@@ -275,14 +275,15 @@ def get_alias(aliases, path_unicode, default):
 
 def escape_path(path):
     # type: (str) -> str
-    """
+    u"""
     Return path quoted to US-ASCII.
 
     >>> path = u'/føö/bar/☃'
-    >>> escape_path(path)
+    >>> escaped = escape_path(path)
+    >>> str(escaped)
     '/f%C3%B8%C3%B6/bar/%E2%98%83'
-    >>> escape_path(path).encode('ascii')
-    b'/f%C3%B8%C3%B6/bar/%E2%98%83'
+    >>> escaped.encode('ascii').decode('ascii') == escaped
+    True
     """
     # this always returns bytes, specifically US-ASCII, valid URL characters
     segments = path.split("/")