diff --git a/degesch.c b/degesch.c
index 54f523e..9f17678 100644
--- a/degesch.c
+++ b/degesch.c
@@ -5589,10 +5589,10 @@ on_editline_complete (EditLine *editline, int key)
 	unsigned char result = CC_REFRESH_BEEP;
 
 	// First prepare what Readline would have normally done for us...
-	const LineInfo *info = el_line (editline);
-	int len = info->lastchar - info->buffer;
-	int point = info->cursor - info->buffer;
-	char *copy = xstrndup (info->buffer, len);
+	const LineInfo *info_mb = el_line (editline);
+	int len = info_mb->lastchar - info_mb->buffer;
+	int point = info_mb->cursor - info_mb->buffer;
+	char *copy = xstrndup (info_mb->buffer, len);
 
 	// XXX: possibly incorrect wrt. shift state encodings
 	int el_start = point, el_end = point;
@@ -5652,17 +5652,15 @@ on_editline_return (EditLine *editline, int key)
 		history_w (self->current->history, &ev, H_ENTER, line);
 		print_debug ("history: %d %ls", ev.num, ev.str);
 	}
-
-	// Convert it to multibyte to reflect the Readline interface
-	size_t needed = wcstombs (NULL, line, 0) + 1;
-	char converted[needed];
-	if (!needed || wcstombs (converted, line, needed) == (size_t) -1)
-		print_error ("encoding conversion failed");
-	else
-		process_input (g_ctx, converted);
-
 	free (line);
 
+	// process_input() expects a multibyte string
+	const LineInfo *info_mb = el_line (editline);
+	char copy[info_mb->lastchar - info_mb->buffer + 1];
+	memcpy (copy, info_mb->buffer, sizeof copy - 1);
+	copy[sizeof copy - 1] = '\0';
+	process_input (g_ctx, copy);
+
 	el_cursor (editline, len - point);
 	el_wdeletestr (editline, len);
 	return CC_REFRESH;