diff --git a/esphome/components/modbus_controller/text_sensor/modbus_textsensor.cpp b/esphome/components/modbus_controller/text_sensor/modbus_textsensor.cpp
index c90890c88f..359c6e2f50 100644
--- a/esphome/components/modbus_controller/text_sensor/modbus_textsensor.cpp
+++ b/esphome/components/modbus_controller/text_sensor/modbus_textsensor.cpp
@@ -13,10 +13,10 @@ void ModbusTextSensor::dump_config() { LOG_TEXT_SENSOR("", "Modbus Controller Te
 
 void ModbusTextSensor::parse_and_publish(const std::vector<uint8_t> &data) {
   std::ostringstream output;
-  uint8_t max_items = this->response_bytes;
+  uint8_t items_left = this->response_bytes;
   uint8_t index = this->offset;
   char buffer[4];
-  while ((max_items != 0) && index < data.size()) {
+  while ((items_left > 0) && index < data.size()) {
     uint8_t b = data[index];
     switch (this->encode_) {
       case RawEncoding::HEXBYTES:
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ void ModbusTextSensor::parse_and_publish(const std::vector<uint8_t> &data) {
         output << (char) b;
         break;
     }
-
+    items_left--;
     index++;
   }