diff --git a/source/org/jivesoftware/smackx/pubsub/provider/ItemProvider.java b/source/org/jivesoftware/smackx/pubsub/provider/ItemProvider.java
index aabd4cb2f..833392a43 100644
--- a/source/org/jivesoftware/smackx/pubsub/provider/ItemProvider.java
+++ b/source/org/jivesoftware/smackx/pubsub/provider/ItemProvider.java
@@ -24,53 +24,85 @@ import org.jivesoftware.smackx.pubsub.packet.PubSubNamespace;
 import org.xmlpull.v1.XmlPullParser;
 
 /**
- * Parses an <b>item</b> element as is defined in both the {@link PubSubNamespace#BASIC} and {@link PubSubNamespace#EVENT}
- * namespaces.  To parse the item contents, it will use whatever {@link PacketExtensionProvider} is registered in 
- * <b>smack.providers</b> for its element name and namespace.  If no provider is registered, it will return a {@link SimplePayload}.
+ * Parses an <b>item</b> element as is defined in both the {@link PubSubNamespace#BASIC} and
+ * {@link PubSubNamespace#EVENT} namespaces. To parse the item contents, it will use whatever
+ * {@link PacketExtensionProvider} is registered in <b>smack.providers</b> for its element name and namespace. If no
+ * provider is registered, it will return a {@link SimplePayload}.
  * 
  * @author Robin Collier
  */
-public class ItemProvider implements PacketExtensionProvider
+public class ItemProvider implements PacketExtensionProvider 
 {
-	public PacketExtension parseExtension(XmlPullParser parser) throws Exception
-	{
-		String id = parser.getAttributeValue(null, "id");
+    public PacketExtension parseExtension(XmlPullParser parser) throws Exception 
+    {
+        String id = parser.getAttributeValue(null, "id");
         String node = parser.getAttributeValue(null, "node");
-		String elem = parser.getName();
-		
-		int tag = parser.next();
-		
-		if (tag == XmlPullParser.END_TAG)
-		{
-			return new Item(id, node);		
-		}
-		else
-		{
-			String payloadElemName = parser.getName();
-			String payloadNS = parser.getNamespace();
-			
-	        if (ProviderManager.getInstance().getExtensionProvider(payloadElemName, payloadNS) == null)
-	        {
-	    		boolean done = false;
-	    		StringBuilder payloadText = new StringBuilder();
-	    		
-	    		while (!done)
-	    		{
-	    			if (tag == XmlPullParser.END_TAG && parser.getName().equals(elem))
-	    				done = true;
-	    			else if (!((tag == XmlPullParser.START_TAG) && parser.isEmptyElementTag()))
-    					payloadText.append(parser.getText());
-	    			
-	    			if (!done)
-	    				tag = parser.next();
-	    		}
-	    		return new PayloadItem<SimplePayload>(id, node, new SimplePayload(payloadElemName, payloadNS, payloadText.toString()));
-	        }
-	        else
-	        {
-	        	return new PayloadItem<PacketExtension>(id, node, PacketParserUtils.parsePacketExtension(payloadElemName, payloadNS, parser));
-	        }
-		}
-	}
+        String elem = parser.getName();
+
+        int tag = parser.next();
+
+        if (tag == XmlPullParser.END_TAG) 
+        {
+            return new Item(id, node);
+        }
+        else 
+        {
+            String payloadElemName = parser.getName();
+            String payloadNS = parser.getNamespace();
+
+            if (ProviderManager.getInstance().getExtensionProvider(payloadElemName, payloadNS) == null) 
+            {
+                boolean done = false;
+                StringBuilder payloadText = new StringBuilder();
+
+                while (!done) 
+                {
+                    if (tag == XmlPullParser.END_TAG && parser.getName().equals(elem)) 
+                    {
+                        done = true;
+                    }
+                    else if (parser.getEventType() == XmlPullParser.START_TAG) 
+                    {
+                        payloadText.append("<").append(parser.getName());
+                        
+                        if (parser.getName().equals(payloadElemName) && (!payloadNS.isEmpty())) 
+                            payloadText.append(" xmlns=\"").append(payloadNS).append("\"");
+                        int n = parser.getAttributeCount();
+                        
+                        for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) 
+                            payloadText.append(" ").append(parser.getAttributeName(i)).append("=\"")
+                                    .append(parser.getAttributeValue(i)).append("\"");
+
+                        if (parser.isEmptyElementTag()) 
+                        {
+                            payloadText.append("/>");
+                            done = true;
+                        }
+                        else 
+                        {
+                            payloadText.append(">");
+                        }
+                    }
+                    else if (parser.getEventType() == XmlPullParser.END_TAG) 
+                    {
+                        if (done) 
+                            done = false;
+                        else 
+                            payloadText.append("</").append(parser.getName()).append(">");
+                    }
+                    else if (parser.getEventType() == XmlPullParser.TEXT) 
+                    {
+                        payloadText.append(parser.getText());
+                    }
+                    tag = parser.next();
+                }
+                return new PayloadItem<SimplePayload>(id, node, new SimplePayload(payloadElemName, payloadNS, payloadText.toString()));
+            }
+            else {
+                return new PayloadItem<PacketExtension>(id, node, PacketParserUtils.parsePacketExtension(
+                        payloadElemName, payloadNS, parser));
+            }
+        }
+    }
 
 }