diff --git a/libs/x-content/impl/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xcontent/provider/json/JsonXContentParser.java b/libs/x-content/impl/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xcontent/provider/json/JsonXContentParser.java
index 9530627157683..3b2436e26b691 100644
--- a/libs/x-content/impl/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xcontent/provider/json/JsonXContentParser.java
+++ b/libs/x-content/impl/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xcontent/provider/json/JsonXContentParser.java
@@ -143,15 +143,7 @@ public String text() throws IOException {
 
     @Override
     public XContentString optimizedText() throws IOException {
-        if (currentToken().isValue() == false) {
-            throwOnNoText();
-        }
-        if (parser instanceof ESUTF8StreamJsonParser esParser) {
-            var bytesRef = esParser.getValueAsText();
-            if (bytesRef != null) {
-                return bytesRef;
-            }
-        }
+        // TODO: enable utf-8 parsing optimization once verified it is completely safe
         return new Text(text());
     }
 
diff --git a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/common/xcontent/json/JsonXContentTests.java b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/common/xcontent/json/JsonXContentTests.java
index 4135ead545e07..b60a45b30a49a 100644
--- a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/common/xcontent/json/JsonXContentTests.java
+++ b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/common/xcontent/json/JsonXContentTests.java
@@ -9,7 +9,10 @@
 
 package org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.json;
 
+import org.elasticsearch.common.bytes.BytesReference;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.BaseXContentTestCase;
+import org.elasticsearch.xcontent.Text;
+import org.elasticsearch.xcontent.XContentBuilder;
 import org.elasticsearch.xcontent.XContentGenerator;
 import org.elasticsearch.xcontent.XContentParseException;
 import org.elasticsearch.xcontent.XContentParser;
@@ -18,6 +21,9 @@
 import org.elasticsearch.xcontent.json.JsonXContent;
 
 import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
+import java.util.Set;
+
+import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.equalTo;
 
 public class JsonXContentTests extends BaseXContentTestCase {
 
@@ -41,4 +47,21 @@ public void testMalformedJsonFieldThrowsXContentException() throws Exception {
             assertThrows(XContentParseException.class, () -> parser.text());
         }
     }
+
+    public void testOptimizedTextHasBytes() throws Exception {
+        XContentBuilder builder = builder().startObject().field("text", new Text("foo")).endObject();
+        XContentParserConfiguration parserConfig = parserConfig();
+        if (randomBoolean()) {
+            parserConfig = parserConfig.withFiltering(null, Set.of("*"), null, true);
+        }
+        try (XContentParser parser = createParser(parserConfig, xcontentType().xContent(), BytesReference.bytes(builder))) {
+            assertSame(XContentParser.Token.START_OBJECT, parser.nextToken());
+            assertSame(XContentParser.Token.FIELD_NAME, parser.nextToken());
+            assertTrue(parser.nextToken().isValue());
+            Text text = (Text) parser.optimizedText();
+            // TODO: uncomment after utf8 optimized parsing has been enabled again:
+            // assertTrue(text.hasBytes());
+            assertThat(text.string(), equalTo("foo"));
+        }
+    }
 }