--- a/lesspipe.sh
+++ b/lesspipe.sh
@@ -719,7 +719,7 @@
 setopt sh_word_split 2>/dev/null
 PATH=$PATH:${0%%/lesspipe.sh}
 # the current locale in lowercase (or generic utf-8)
-locale=$(locale|grep LC_CTYPE|sed 's/.*"\(.*\)"/\1/') || locale=en_US.UTF-8
+locale=en_US.UTF-8
 lclocale=$(echo ${locale##*.}|tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]')
 
 sep=:					# file name separator
