diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 5d96b5839..f21d58034 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -112,6 +112,7 @@ BUG FIXES:
     [GH-2766]
   - provisioners/salt: Fix case when salt would say "options only allowed
     before install arguments" [GH-3005]
+  - provisioners/shell: Error if script is encoded incorrectly. [GH-3000]
   - synced\_folders/nfs: NFS entries are pruned on every `vagrant up`,
     if there are any to prune. [GH-2738]
 
diff --git a/lib/vagrant.rb b/lib/vagrant.rb
index b6ebe659d..3fc960fd4 100644
--- a/lib/vagrant.rb
+++ b/lib/vagrant.rb
@@ -1,6 +1,3 @@
-# This file is load before RubyGems are loaded, and allow us to actually
-# resolve plugin dependencies and load the proper versions of everything.
-
 require "vagrant/shared_helpers"
 
 if Vagrant.plugins_enabled? && !defined?(Bundler)
diff --git a/plugins/provisioners/shell/config.rb b/plugins/provisioners/shell/config.rb
index 2c98468b2..0e4c071d0 100644
--- a/plugins/provisioners/shell/config.rb
+++ b/plugins/provisioners/shell/config.rb
@@ -46,11 +46,20 @@ module VagrantPlugins
         end
 
         # If it is not an URL, we validate the existence of a script to upload
-        if path && ! remote?
+        if path && !remote?
           expanded_path = Pathname.new(path).expand_path(machine.env.root_path)
           if !expanded_path.file?
             errors << I18n.t("vagrant.provisioners.shell.path_invalid",
                               :path => expanded_path)
+          else
+            data = expanded_path.read(16)
+            if !data.valid_encoding?
+              errors << I18n.t(
+                "vagrant.provisioners.shell.invalid_encoding",
+                actual: data.encoding.to_s,
+                default: Encoding.default_external.to_s,
+                path: expanded_path.to_s)
+            end
           end
         end
 
diff --git a/templates/locales/en.yml b/templates/locales/en.yml
index 275a6d2a5..e96774c50 100644
--- a/templates/locales/en.yml
+++ b/templates/locales/en.yml
@@ -1523,6 +1523,9 @@ en:
 
       shell:
         args_bad_type: "Shell provisioner `args` must be a string or array."
+        invalid_encoding: |-
+          Invalid encoding '%{actual}' for script at '%{path}'.
+          Must be '%{default}' or UTF-8.
         no_path_or_inline: "One of `path` or `inline` must be set."
         path_and_inline_set: "Only one of `path` or `inline` may be set."
         path_invalid: "`path` for shell provisioner does not exist on the host system: %{path}"