diff --git a/src/main/java/com/songoda/core/locale/Locale.java b/src/main/java/com/songoda/core/locale/Locale.java
index 38b11ee2..31825e84 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/songoda/core/locale/Locale.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/songoda/core/locale/Locale.java
@@ -262,8 +262,6 @@ public class Locale {
                 BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader((InputStream) stream, charset));) {
             String line;
             for (int lineNumber = 0; (line = reader.readLine()) != null; lineNumber++) {
-                if ((line = line.trim()).isEmpty() || line.startsWith("#") /* Comment */) continue;
-                
                 if (lineNumber == 0){
                     // remove BOM markers, if any
                     line = line.replaceAll("[\uFEFF\uFFFE\u200B]", "");
@@ -274,6 +272,8 @@ public class Locale {
                     line = new String(encoded, 0, encoded.length, StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
                 } */
 
+                if ((line = line.trim()).isEmpty() || line.startsWith("#") /* Comment */) continue;
+
                 Matcher matcher = NODE_PATTERN.matcher(line);
                 if (!matcher.find()) {
                     System.err.println("Invalid locale syntax at (line=" + lineNumber + "): " + line);