diff --git a/lib/src/dict_reader_base.dart b/lib/src/dict_reader_base.dart
index ffe2496..f5612c5 100644
--- a/lib/src/dict_reader_base.dart
+++ b/lib/src/dict_reader_base.dart
@@ -460,7 +460,7 @@ class DictReader {
       if (_encoding == "UTF-16" && _mdx) {
         keyText = Utf16Decoder().decodeUtf16Le(keyEncoded);
       } else {
-        keyText = utf8.decode(keyEncoded);
+        keyText = utf8.decode(keyEncoded, allowMalformed: true);
       }
 
       if (!_mdx) {