diff --git a/c4mate b/c4mate
index 5439b19..8845b30 100755
--- a/c4mate
+++ b/c4mate
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ HOST = "http://mate.labor.koeln.ccc.de"
 local function utf8_decode(str)
     -- Replace JSON Unicode escape sequences with chars.
     if str == nil then return "" end
+    str = string.gsub(str, "\\\"", "\"")
     return string.gsub(str, "\\u(%x%x%x%x)",
         function (s) return utf8.char(tonumber(s, 16)) end)
 end
@@ -101,6 +102,7 @@ function MatePad:parse_log(size)
     -- Then extract and print oldbalance, newbalance, parameter and method.
     -- Depending on method, print either reason or item_name. If any extraction
     -- fails we fail with exit code 1.
+    -- Note: we allow quoted quotation marks in "reason".
     pipe = io.popen(string.format([=[
 curl %s --header "Accept: application/json" "%s/api/user/%s/log?type=json" | \
 sed -n --sandbox '
@@ -128,7 +130,7 @@ sed -n '
     T fail
     /set_balance\|transfer/{
         g
-        s/.*"reason" *: *\(null\|"\([^"]*\)"\).*/\2/p
+        s/.*"reason" *: *\(null\|"\(\([^"]\|\\"\)*[^\\]\)"\).*/\2/p
         T fail
         b
     }