diff --git a/kustomize/kustomize_generator_whitebox_test.go b/kustomize/kustomize_generator_whitebox_test.go
index 36104dbbf..8f9cf9c45 100644
--- a/kustomize/kustomize_generator_whitebox_test.go
+++ b/kustomize/kustomize_generator_whitebox_test.go
@@ -57,6 +57,11 @@ func TestScanManifests(t *testing.T) {
 				"testdata/nokustomization/utf16le/secret.yaml",
 			},
 		},
+		{
+			name:    "utf-16BE without BOM files - should be invalid",
+			base:    "./testdata/nokustomization/utf16le-no-bom",
+			wantErr: true,
+		},
 	}
 
 	for _, tt := range tests {
diff --git a/kustomize/testdata/nokustomization/utf16le-no-bom/secret.yaml b/kustomize/testdata/nokustomization/utf16le-no-bom/secret.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..0e933f61d
Binary files /dev/null and b/kustomize/testdata/nokustomization/utf16le-no-bom/secret.yaml differ