diff --git a/smack-core/src/main/java/org/jivesoftware/smack/util/PacketParserUtils.java b/smack-core/src/main/java/org/jivesoftware/smack/util/PacketParserUtils.java
index fe88a7f6f..3f47cef12 100644
--- a/smack-core/src/main/java/org/jivesoftware/smack/util/PacketParserUtils.java
+++ b/smack-core/src/main/java/org/jivesoftware/smack/util/PacketParserUtils.java
@@ -482,8 +482,7 @@ public class PacketParserUtils {
             if (!(event == XmlPullParser.START_TAG && parser.isEmptyElementTag())) {
                 CharSequence text = parser.getText();
                 if (event == XmlPullParser.TEXT) {
-                    // TODO the toString() can be removed in Smack 4.2.
-                    text = StringUtils.escapeForXmlText(text.toString());
+                    text = StringUtils.escapeForXmlText(text);
                 }
                 sb.append(text);
             }