diff --git a/lib/ansible/plugins/action/__init__.py b/lib/ansible/plugins/action/__init__.py
index 124321e67bd..fcbd1e2c21e 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/plugins/action/__init__.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/plugins/action/__init__.py
@@ -409,7 +409,7 @@ class ActionBase(with_metaclass(ABCMeta, object)):
                 # the remote system, which can be read and parsed by the module
                 args_data = ""
                 for k,v in iteritems(module_args):
-                    args_data += '%s="%s" ' % (k, pipes.quote(v))
+                    args_data += '%s="%s" ' % (k, pipes.quote(text_type(v)))
                 self._transfer_data(args_file_path, args_data)
             display.debug("done transferring module to remote")