--- a/lesspipe.sh
+++ b/lesspipe.sh
@@ -841,7 +841,7 @@
 setopt sh_word_split 2>/dev/null
 PATH=$PATH:${0%%/lesspipe.sh}
 # the current locale in lowercase (or generic utf-8)
-charmap=$(locale -k  charmap|tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]') || charmap="charmap=utf-8"
+charmap="charmap=utf-8"
 eval "$charmap"
 
 sep=:					# file name separator