diff --git a/lib/fs.js b/lib/fs.js
index 76873be14ab3de..6345497c4f2c48 100644
--- a/lib/fs.js
+++ b/lib/fs.js
@@ -395,12 +395,24 @@ function readFileAfterClose(err) {
   else
     buffer = context.buffer;
 
-  if (context.encoding)
-    buffer = buffer.toString(context.encoding);
+  if (err) return callback(err, buffer);
 
-  callback(err, buffer);
+  if (context.encoding) {
+    return tryToString(buffer, context.encoding, callback);
+  }
+
+  callback(null, buffer);
 }
 
+function tryToString(buf, encoding, callback) {
+  var e;
+  try {
+    buf = buf.toString(encoding);
+  } catch (err) {
+    e = err;
+  }
+  callback(e, buf);
+}
 
 fs.readFileSync = function(path, options) {
   if (!options) {
diff --git a/test/parallel/test-fs-readfile-tostring-fail.js b/test/parallel/test-fs-readfile-tostring-fail.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..b5c4ea8f7a0b17
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/parallel/test-fs-readfile-tostring-fail.js
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+'use strict';
+
+const common = require('../common');
+const assert = require('assert');
+const fs = require('fs');
+const path = require('path');
+const kStringMaxLength = process.binding('buffer').kStringMaxLength;
+
+common.refreshTmpDir();
+
+const file = path.join(common.tmpDir, 'toobig.txt');
+const stream = fs.createWriteStream(file, {
+  flags: 'a'
+});
+
+const size = kStringMaxLength / 200;
+const a = new Buffer(size).fill('a');
+
+for (var i = 0; i < 201; i++) {
+  stream.write(a);
+}
+
+stream.end();
+stream.on('finish', common.mustCall(function() {
+  // make sure that the toString does not throw an error
+  fs.readFile(file, 'utf8', common.mustCall(function(err, buf) {
+    assert.ok(err instanceof Error);
+    assert.strictEqual('toString failed', err.message);
+  }));
+}));
+
+function destroy() {
+  try {
+    fs.unlinkSync(file);
+  } catch (err) {
+    // it may not exist
+  }
+}
+
+process.on('exit', destroy);
+
+process.on('SIGINT', function() {
+  destroy();
+  process.exit();
+});
+
+// To make sure we don't leave a very large file
+// on test machines in the event this test fails.
+process.on('uncaughtException', function(err) {
+  destroy();
+  throw err;
+});