diff --git a/bin/linja b/bin/linja
index 839c55b117..cc3427e42f 100755
--- a/bin/linja
+++ b/bin/linja
@@ -52,6 +52,7 @@ if sys.version_info[0] == 2:
   def python_2_unicode_compatible(klass):
       klass.__unicode__ = klass.__str__
       klass.__str__ = lambda self: self.__unicode__().encode('utf-8')
+      return klass
 
   # Enforce subprocesses to use 'utf-8' in Python 2
   reload(sys)