diff --git a/lpmqtt/daemon.py b/lpmqtt/daemon.py
index ba2c5e3..1043fa7 100644
--- a/lpmqtt/daemon.py
+++ b/lpmqtt/daemon.py
@@ -51,7 +51,8 @@ def process_event(event, base_topic):
         pieces.append(event['project'])
         if 'event_type' in event:
             pieces.append(event['event-type'])
-            pieces.append(event['bug-number'])
+            if 'bug-number' in event:
+                pieces.append(event['bug-number'])
     topic = "/".join(pieces)
     msg = json.dumps(event)
     return msg, topic
diff --git a/lpmqtt/lp.py b/lpmqtt/lp.py
index 6e9baeb..507970a 100644
--- a/lpmqtt/lp.py
+++ b/lpmqtt/lp.py
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
 # under the License.
 
 import email
+from email.header import decode_header
 import re
 
 import imaplib2 as imaplib
@@ -46,8 +47,16 @@ class LPImapWatcher(object):
         if bug_tags:
             event['tags'] = bug_tags.split(' ')
         subject = message['Subject']
-        bug_num_str = re.match('^\[(.*?)\]', subject).group(0)
-        event['bug-number'] = bug_num_str.split(' ')[1].rstrip(']')
+        header_decode_out = decode_header(subject)
+        subject = header_decode_out[0][0]
+        bug_num_re_match = re.match('^\[(.*?)\]', subject)
+        if not bug_num_re_match:
+            print("Subject %s does not contain a parseable bug number"
+                  % subject)
+        else:
+            bug_num_str = bug_num_re_match.group(0)
+            event['bug-number'] = bug_num_str.split(' ')[1].rstrip(']')
+
         bug_info = message['X-Launchpad-Bug'].split(';')
         for info in bug_info:
             clean_info = info.lstrip()