Perl Encode.pm cannot decode string with wide character

I was running a perl app which uses /opt/local/lib/perl5/5.12.4/darwin-thread-multi-2level/Encode.pm

and issues an error

Cannot decode string with wide characters at /opt/local/lib/perl5/5.12.4/darwin-thread-multi-2level/Encode.pm line 174.

Line 174 of Encode.pm reads

sub decode($$;$) {
    my ( $name, $octets, $check ) = @_;
    return undef unless defined $octets;
    $octets .= '' if ref $octets;
    $check ||= 0;
    my $enc = find_encoding($name);
    unless ( defined $enc ) {
        require Carp;
        Carp::croak("Unknown encoding '$name'");
    }
    my $string = $enc->decode( $octets, $check );  # line 174
    $_[1] = $octets if $check and !ref $check and !( $check & LEAVE_SRC() );
    return $string;
}

Any workaround?