diff --git a/plwn/storages/sqlite.py b/plwn/storages/sqlite.py
index 781c5cc338f5ebe8edc5f44a74a72184dc0ec1b4..4405789c3a58536deb0a560149d0fde49d877a3d 100644
--- a/plwn/storages/sqlite.py
+++ b/plwn/storages/sqlite.py
@@ -787,7 +787,11 @@ class LexicalUnit(bs.LexicalUnitBase):
                     u"SELECT quote(id) from tbl_lexicalunit WHERE id = ?",
                     (self._id,),
                 )
-                self._uuid = cur.fetchone()[0][2:-1]
+                temp = cur.fetchone()[0]
+                if isinstance(temp, str):
+                    self._uuid = temp[2:-1]
+                else:
+                    self._uuid = temp
         return self._uuid
 
     @property
@@ -1150,7 +1154,11 @@ class Synset(bs.SynsetBase):
                     u"SELECT quote(id) from tbl_synset WHERE id = ?",
                     (self._id,),
                 )
-                self._uuid = cur.fetchone()[0][2:-1]
+                temp = cur.fetchone()[0]
+                if isinstance(temp, str):
+                    self._uuid = temp[2:-1]
+                else:
+                    self._uuid = temp
         return self._uuid
 
     @property