diff --git a/attributs.py b/attributs.py
index 08c9c5f..467b5ca 100644
--- a/attributs.py
+++ b/attributs.py
@@ -90,7 +90,7 @@ class Attr(object):
         self.value = val
 
     def __str__(self):
-        unicode.encode(unicode(self), 'utf-8')
+        return unicode(self).encode('utf-8')
 
     def validate(self, ldif):
         """validates: