diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/io/stream/BytesStreamOutput.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/io/stream/BytesStreamOutput.java
index 899ecf2d873..172b07ff04a 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/io/stream/BytesStreamOutput.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/io/stream/BytesStreamOutput.java
@@ -153,7 +153,9 @@ public class BytesStreamOutput extends StreamOutput implements BytesStream {
 
     @Override
     public BytesReference bytes() {
-        return new PagedBytesReference(bigarrays, bytes, count);
+        BytesRef bref = new BytesRef();
+        bytes.get(0, count, bref);
+        return new BytesArray(bref, false);
     }
 
     private void ensureCapacity(int offset) {