diff --git a/src/vs/workbench/services/textfile/test/fixtures/utf16_be_nobom.txt b/src/vs/workbench/services/textfile/test/fixtures/utf16_be_nobom.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..63c29412093
Binary files /dev/null and b/src/vs/workbench/services/textfile/test/fixtures/utf16_be_nobom.txt differ
diff --git a/src/vs/workbench/services/textfile/test/fixtures/utf16_le_nobom.txt b/src/vs/workbench/services/textfile/test/fixtures/utf16_le_nobom.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..7b94ff215b0
Binary files /dev/null and b/src/vs/workbench/services/textfile/test/fixtures/utf16_le_nobom.txt differ
diff --git a/src/vs/workbench/services/textfile/test/textFileService.io.test.ts b/src/vs/workbench/services/textfile/test/textFileService.io.test.ts
index ce62c9606d0..481e499a3e1 100644
--- a/src/vs/workbench/services/textfile/test/textFileService.io.test.ts
+++ b/src/vs/workbench/services/textfile/test/textFileService.io.test.ts
@@ -556,6 +556,20 @@ suite('Files - TextFileService i/o', () => {
 		assert.ok(contents.indexOf(needle, 10) > 0);
 	}
 
+	test('readStream - UTF16 LE (no BOM)', async () => {
+		const resource = URI.file(join(testDir, 'utf16_le_nobom.txt'));
+
+		const result = await service.readStream(resource);
+		assert.equal(result.encoding, 'utf16le');
+	});
+
+	test('readStream - UTF16 BE (no BOM)', async () => {
+		const resource = URI.file(join(testDir, 'utf16_be_nobom.txt'));
+
+		const result = await service.readStream(resource);
+		assert.equal(result.encoding, 'utf16be');
+	});
+
 	test('readStream - FILE_IS_BINARY', async () => {
 		const resource = URI.file(join(testDir, 'binary.txt'));