diff --git a/src/main/java/io/usethesource/vallang/io/StandardTextReader.java b/src/main/java/io/usethesource/vallang/io/StandardTextReader.java
index 2b0e8cc54..a8e1d83f7 100644
--- a/src/main/java/io/usethesource/vallang/io/StandardTextReader.java
+++ b/src/main/java/io/usethesource/vallang/io/StandardTextReader.java
@@ -742,7 +742,7 @@ private IValue readString(Type expected) throws IOException {
                         if (current == -1) {
                             throw new FactParseError("End of input before finding end of String", stream.offset);
                         }
-                        builder.append(current);
+                        builder.append((char)current);
                     }
                     current = stream.read();
                 }
diff --git a/src/test/java/io/usethesource/vallang/basic/LazyStringOperationsTest.java b/src/test/java/io/usethesource/vallang/basic/LazyStringOperationsTest.java
index e0a85095d..bc98fe5d0 100644
--- a/src/test/java/io/usethesource/vallang/basic/LazyStringOperationsTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/io/usethesource/vallang/basic/LazyStringOperationsTest.java
@@ -194,7 +194,7 @@ public void testStringReplace(IValueFactory vf) {
 
 	@ParameterizedTest @ArgumentsSource(ValueProvider.class)
 	public void neverRunOutOfStack(IValueFactory vf) {
-		int outofStack = 30000;
+		int outofStack = 100000;
 
 		// first we have to know for sure that we would run out of stack with @see
 		// outOfStack iterations:
diff --git a/src/test/java/io/usethesource/vallang/issues/RegressionTests.java b/src/test/java/io/usethesource/vallang/issues/RegressionTests.java
index 987447d2e..19ba0c6cf 100644
--- a/src/test/java/io/usethesource/vallang/issues/RegressionTests.java
+++ b/src/test/java/io/usethesource/vallang/issues/RegressionTests.java
@@ -5,6 +5,8 @@
 import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertTrue;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.Reader;
+import java.io.StringReader;
 import java.io.StringWriter;
 
 import org.junit.jupiter.params.ParameterizedTest;
@@ -14,8 +16,10 @@
 import io.usethesource.vallang.IConstructor;
 import io.usethesource.vallang.ISet;
 import io.usethesource.vallang.ISourceLocation;
+import io.usethesource.vallang.IString;
 import io.usethesource.vallang.IValueFactory;
 import io.usethesource.vallang.ValueProvider;
+import io.usethesource.vallang.io.StandardTextReader;
 import io.usethesource.vallang.io.StandardTextWriter;
 import io.usethesource.vallang.type.Type;
 import io.usethesource.vallang.type.TypeFactory;
@@ -60,5 +64,18 @@ void keywordFieldsMakeConstructorsDifferent(IValueFactory vf, TypeFactory tf, Ty
 
        assertFalse(cons1.equals(cons2));
     }
-    
+ 
+    private IString readString(IValueFactory valueFactory, TypeStore typeStore, String s) throws IOException {
+        Reader reader = new StringReader(s);
+        StandardTextReader textReader = new StandardTextReader();
+        return (IString) textReader.read(valueFactory, typeStore, TypeFactory.getInstance().stringType(), reader);
+        
+    }
+
+    @ParameterizedTest @ArgumentsSource(ValueProvider.class)
+    void escapeNormalCharacters(IValueFactory valueFactory, TypeStore typeStore) throws IOException {
+        IString s = readString(valueFactory, typeStore, "\"\\$\"");
+        assertEquals("$", s.getValue());
+    }
+
 }