diff -wruN -x '*~' -x '*.o' -x '*.a' -x '*.so' -x '*.so.[0-9]' -x autom4te.cache -x .deps -x .libs ../orig-salt-2015.8.3/salt/modules/zypper.py ./salt/modules/zypper.py
--- ../orig-salt-2015.8.3/salt/modules/zypper.py	2015-12-01 22:25:13.000000000 +0100
+++ ./salt/modules/zypper.py	2015-12-09 09:15:41.157266587 +0100
@@ -112,6 +112,11 @@
         t_nfo = dict()
         # Translate dpkg-specific keys to a common structure
         for key, value in pkg_nfo.items():
+            try:
+                value = value.encode('UTF-8', errors='replace')
+            except(UnicodeDecodeError):
+                log.error('Package ' + pkg_name + ' has bad UTF-8 code in ' + key + ': ' + value)
+                value = '*** Bad UTF-8 ***'
             if key == 'source_rpm':
                 t_nfo['source'] = value
             else: