diff --git a/src/shared/conf-parser.c b/src/shared/conf-parser.c
index dae521ef9f..44df7493e2 100644
--- a/src/shared/conf-parser.c
+++ b/src/shared/conf-parser.c
@@ -793,7 +793,7 @@ int config_parse_strv(const char *unit,
                 }
 
                 if (!utf8_is_valid(word)) {
-                        log_syntax_invalid_utf8(unit, LOG_ERR, filename, line, rvalue);
+                        log_syntax_invalid_utf8(unit, LOG_ERR, filename, line, word);
                         free(word);
                         continue;
                 }
diff --git a/src/test/test-conf-parser.c b/src/test/test-conf-parser.c
index be5d2611f8..26ff27035b 100644
--- a/src/test/test-conf-parser.c
+++ b/src/test/test-conf-parser.c
@@ -180,6 +180,8 @@ static void test_config_parse_strv(void) {
         test_config_parse_strv_one("foo", STRV_MAKE("foo"));
         test_config_parse_strv_one("foo bar foo", STRV_MAKE("foo", "bar", "foo"));
         test_config_parse_strv_one("\"foo bar\" foo", STRV_MAKE("foo bar", "foo"));
+        test_config_parse_strv_one("\xc3\x80", STRV_MAKE("\xc3\x80"));
+        test_config_parse_strv_one("\xc3\x7f", STRV_MAKE_EMPTY);
 }
 
 static void test_config_parse_mode(void) {