diff --git a/ndiff/ndiff b/ndiff/ndiff
index 898a5574a..e58031d2b 100755
--- a/ndiff/ndiff
+++ b/ndiff/ndiff
@@ -689,7 +689,7 @@ def main():
     try:
         opts, input_filenames = getopt.gnu_getopt(sys.argv[1:], "hv", ["help", "text", "verbose", "xml"])
     except getopt.GetoptError, e:
-        print >> sys.stderr, u"%s: %s" % (sys.argv[0], unicode(e))
+        print >> sys.stderr, u"%s: %s" % (sys.argv[0], e.msg)
         sys.exit(1)
     for o, a in opts:
         if o == "-h" or o == "--help":