diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 19ad570b..2b380b80 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "stated-js",
-  "version": "0.1.36",
+  "version": "0.1.37",
   "license": "Apache-2.0",
   "description": "JSONata embedded in JSON",
   "main": "./dist/src/index.js",
diff --git a/src/CliCoreBase.ts b/src/CliCoreBase.ts
index c8c46177..093bef49 100644
--- a/src/CliCoreBase.ts
+++ b/src/CliCoreBase.ts
@@ -93,7 +93,9 @@ export class CliCoreBase {
 
         if (fileExtension === 'yaml' || fileExtension === 'yml') {
             return yaml.load(fileContent);
-        } else {
+        }else if (fileExtension === 'text' || fileExtension === 'txt') {
+            return fileContent;
+        }else {
             return JSON.parse(fileContent);
         }
     }