diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/bulk/BulkItemResponse.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/bulk/BulkItemResponse.java
index 7114c95713c..1062b397af5 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/bulk/BulkItemResponse.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/bulk/BulkItemResponse.java
@@ -33,7 +33,6 @@ import org.elasticsearch.common.io.stream.Writeable;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.StatusToXContent;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.ToXContent;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentBuilder;
-import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.json.JsonXContent;
 import org.elasticsearch.rest.RestStatus;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
@@ -178,15 +177,7 @@ public class BulkItemResponse implements Streamable, StatusToXContent {
 
         @Override
         public String toString() {
-            // Can't use: Strings.toString(this)
-            // because missing start and end object
-            try {
-                XContentBuilder builder = JsonXContent.contentBuilder().startObject();
-                toXContent(builder, ToXContent.EMPTY_PARAMS);
-                return builder.endObject().string();
-            } catch (IOException e) {
-                throw new AssertionError("Cannot happen", e);
-            }
+            return Strings.toString(this);
         }
     }