diff --git a/src/com/fsck/k9/mail/internet/MimeUtility.java b/src/com/fsck/k9/mail/internet/MimeUtility.java
index 2db9d6812..68bd5ce35 100644
--- a/src/com/fsck/k9/mail/internet/MimeUtility.java
+++ b/src/com/fsck/k9/mail/internet/MimeUtility.java
@@ -385,10 +385,12 @@ public class MimeUtility
                      * Now we read the part into a buffer for further processing. Because
                      * the stream is now wrapped we'll remove any transfer encoding at this point.
                      */
-                    final InputStream in = part.getBody().getInputStream();
                     ByteArrayOutputStream out = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
+                    InputStream in = part.getBody().getInputStream();
                     IOUtils.copy(in, out);
                     in.close();
+                    in = null;      // we want all of our memory back, and close might not release
+                                    // Cargo culted from AOSP - This disagrees with the platform docs
 
                     /*
                      * Convert and return as new String