diff --git a/metafacture-xml/src/main/java/org/metafacture/xml/SimpleXmlEncoder.java b/metafacture-xml/src/main/java/org/metafacture/xml/SimpleXmlEncoder.java
index cff74368e..c0a944918 100644
--- a/metafacture-xml/src/main/java/org/metafacture/xml/SimpleXmlEncoder.java
+++ b/metafacture-xml/src/main/java/org/metafacture/xml/SimpleXmlEncoder.java
@@ -53,6 +53,7 @@
 public final class SimpleXmlEncoder extends DefaultStreamPipe<ObjectReceiver<String>> {
 
     public static final String ATTRIBUTE_MARKER = "~";
+    public static final String DEFAULT_VALUE_TAG = "";
 
     private static final String NEW_LINE = "\n";
     private static final String INDENT = "\t";
@@ -73,7 +74,7 @@ public final class SimpleXmlEncoder extends DefaultStreamPipe<ObjectReceiver<Str
     private String attributeMarker = ATTRIBUTE_MARKER;
     private String rootTag = DefaultXmlPipe.DEFAULT_ROOT_TAG;
     private String recordTag = DefaultXmlPipe.DEFAULT_RECORD_TAG;
-    private String valueTag = DefaultXmlPipe.DEFAULT_VALUE_TAG;
+    private String valueTag = DEFAULT_VALUE_TAG;
     private Map<String, String> namespaces = new HashMap<String, String>();
     private boolean writeRootTag = true;
     private boolean writeXmlHeader = true;
diff --git a/metafacture-xml/src/test/java/org/metafacture/xml/SimpleXmlEncoderTest.java b/metafacture-xml/src/test/java/org/metafacture/xml/SimpleXmlEncoderTest.java
index cf7a3d8d6..d4b2c6197 100644
--- a/metafacture-xml/src/test/java/org/metafacture/xml/SimpleXmlEncoderTest.java
+++ b/metafacture-xml/src/test/java/org/metafacture/xml/SimpleXmlEncoderTest.java
@@ -19,12 +19,14 @@
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue;
 
+import org.metafacture.framework.helpers.DefaultObjectReceiver;
+import org.metafacture.framework.helpers.DefaultXmlPipe;
+
 import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.Map;
 
 import org.junit.Before;
 import org.junit.Test;
-import org.metafacture.framework.helpers.DefaultObjectReceiver;
 
 /**
  * Tests for class {@link SimpleXmlEncoder}.
@@ -251,6 +253,22 @@ public void issue379_testShouldEncodeConfiguredValueLiteralsAsText() {
                 getResultXml());
     }
 
+    @Test
+    public void issue379_testShouldNotEncodeUnconfiguredValueLiteralsAsText() {
+        simpleXmlEncoder.startRecord("");
+        simpleXmlEncoder.literal(DefaultXmlPipe.DEFAULT_VALUE_TAG, VALUE);
+        simpleXmlEncoder.endRecord();
+        simpleXmlEncoder.closeStream();
+
+        assertEquals("<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>" +
+                "<records>" +
+                "<record>" +
+                "<value>value</value>" +
+                "</record>" +
+                "</records>",
+                getResultXml());
+    }
+
     @Test
     public void testShouldEncodeMarkedLiteralsAsAttributes() {
         simpleXmlEncoder.startRecord("");