diff --git a/src/java/us/kbase/templates/python_server.vm.properties b/src/java/us/kbase/templates/python_server.vm.properties
index dbf6241..c5d7d17 100644
--- a/src/java/us/kbase/templates/python_server.vm.properties
+++ b/src/java/us/kbase/templates/python_server.vm.properties
@@ -134,7 +134,11 @@ class JSONRPCServiceCustom(JSONRPCService):
             newerr = JSONServerError()
             newerr.trace = traceback.format_exc()
             if len(e.args) == 1:
-                newerr.data = repr(e.args[0])
+                # repr adds single quotes around string arguments which is not what we want.
+                if type(e.args[0]) == str:
+                    newerr.data = e.args[0]
+                else:
+                    newerr.data = repr(e.args[0])
             else:
                 newerr.data = repr(e.args)
             raise newerr