diff --git a/moban/hashstore.py b/moban/hashstore.py
index 17c9efd9..25b72518 100644
--- a/moban/hashstore.py
+++ b/moban/hashstore.py
@@ -65,6 +65,8 @@ def get_file_hash(afile):
 
 def get_hash(content):
     md5 = hashlib.md5()
+    if PY2 and content.__class__.__name__ == "unicode":
+        content = content.encode("utf-8")
     md5.update(content)
     return md5.digest().decode("latin1")
 
diff --git a/moban/utils.py b/moban/utils.py
index 3c498c95..87e0f63b 100644
--- a/moban/utils.py
+++ b/moban/utils.py
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 from moban import constants, exceptions
 
 log = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+PY2 = sys.version_info[0] == 2
 
 
 def merge(left, right):
@@ -60,6 +61,8 @@ def file_permissions(afile):
 
 
 def write_file_out(filename, content):
+    if PY2 and content.__class__.__name__ == "unicode":
+        content = content.encode("utf-8")
     dest_folder = os.path.dirname(filename)
     if dest_folder:
         mkdir_p(dest_folder)