diff --git a/packages/sdk/src/restclient.ts b/packages/sdk/src/restclient.ts
index cd128366..14809dae 100644
--- a/packages/sdk/src/restclient.ts
+++ b/packages/sdk/src/restclient.ts
@@ -324,14 +324,14 @@ export class RestClient {
 
   // Makes a "smart query" on the contract, returns response verbatim (json.RawMessage)
   // Throws error if no such contract or invalid query format
-  public async queryContractSmart(address: string, query: object): Promise<unknown> {
+  public async queryContractSmart(address: string, query: object): Promise<string> {
     const encoded = toHex(toUtf8(JSON.stringify(query)));
     const path = `/wasm/contract/${address}/smart/${encoded}?encoding=hex`;
     const responseData = (await this.get(path)) as WasmResponse;
     if (isWasmError(responseData)) {
       throw new Error(responseData.error);
     }
-    // no extra parse here
+    // no extra parse here for now, see https://github.com/confio/cosmwasm/issues/144
     return responseData.result;
   }
 }
diff --git a/packages/sdk/types/restclient.d.ts b/packages/sdk/types/restclient.d.ts
index d8a23d42..ad5f735d 100644
--- a/packages/sdk/types/restclient.d.ts
+++ b/packages/sdk/types/restclient.d.ts
@@ -104,6 +104,6 @@ export declare class RestClient {
   getContractInfo(address: string): Promise<ContractInfo>;
   getAllContractState(address: string): Promise<readonly WasmData[]>;
   queryContractRaw(address: string, key: Uint8Array): Promise<unknown | null>;
-  queryContractSmart(address: string, query: object): Promise<unknown>;
+  queryContractSmart(address: string, query: object): Promise<string>;
 }
 export {};