diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@
 
 find_package(KF5Akonadi ${AKONADI_VERSION} CONFIG REQUIRED)
 find_package(KF5AkonadiContact ${AKONADI_CONTACT_VERSION} CONFIG REQUIRED)
+find_package(KF5Mime ${AKONADI_VERSION} CONFIG REQUIRED)
 
 find_package(Qt5 ${QT_MIN_VERSION} REQUIRED NO_MODULE COMPONENTS Core Widgets Test)
 message(STATUS "Qt version: ${Qt5Core_VERSION}")
diff --git a/src/CMakeLists.txt b/src/CMakeLists.txt
--- a/src/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@
 
 set(akonadiclient_SRCS ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/main.cpp)
 add_library(libakonadiclient STATIC ${libakonadiclient_SRCS})
-target_link_libraries(libakonadiclient KF5::AkonadiCore KF5::AkonadiXml KF5::AkonadiContact)
+target_link_libraries(libakonadiclient KF5::AkonadiCore KF5::AkonadiXml KF5::AkonadiContact KF5::Mime)
 target_link_libraries(libakonadiclient KF5::I18n)
 target_link_libraries(libakonadiclient Qt5::Core)
 
diff --git a/src/showcommand.h b/src/showcommand.h
--- a/src/showcommand.h
+++ b/src/showcommand.h
@@ -45,6 +45,8 @@
 private:
     QStringList mItemArgs;
     AbstractCommand::Errors mExitStatus;
+    QCommandLineOption mRawOption;
+    bool mRaw = false;
 
 private Q_SLOTS:
     void processNextItem();
diff --git a/src/showcommand.cpp b/src/showcommand.cpp
--- a/src/showcommand.cpp
+++ b/src/showcommand.cpp
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
 
 #include <AkonadiCore/itemfetchjob.h>
 #include <AkonadiCore/itemfetchscope.h>
+#include <KMime/Message>
 
 #include <iostream>
 
@@ -32,20 +33,24 @@
 DEFINE_COMMAND("show", ShowCommand, "Show the raw payload of an item");
 
 ShowCommand::ShowCommand(QObject *parent)
-    : AbstractCommand(parent)
+    : AbstractCommand(parent),
+      mRawOption(QStringLiteral("raw"), i18nc("@info:shell", "Use raw payload (disables quoted-printable decoding)"))
 {
 }
 
 void ShowCommand::setupCommandOptions(QCommandLineParser *parser)
 {
     parser->addPositionalArgument("item", i18nc("@info:shell", "The items to show"), i18nc("@info:shell", "item..."));
+    parser->addOption(mRawOption);
 }
 
 int ShowCommand::initCommand(QCommandLineParser *parser)
 {
     mItemArgs = parser->positionalArguments();
     if (!checkArgCount(mItemArgs, 1, i18nc("@info:shell", "No items specified"))) return InvalidUsage;
 
+    mRaw = parser->isSet(mRawOption);
+
     return NoError;
 }
 
@@ -96,12 +101,25 @@
             if (!item.hasPayload()) {
                 emit error(i18nc("@info:shell", "Item '%1' has no payload", job->property("arg").toString()));
                 mExitStatus = RuntimeError;
-            } else {
+            } else if (mRaw) {
                 std::cout << item.payloadData().constData();    // output the raw payload
-                if (!mItemArgs.isEmpty()) {         // not the last item
-                    std::cout << "\n";                // blank line to separate
+            } else {
+                if (item.hasPayload<KMime::Message::Ptr>()) {
+                    const KMime::Message::Ptr mail = item.payload<KMime::Message::Ptr>();
+                    std::cout << qPrintable(mail->head());
+                    const auto mainPart = mail->mainBodyPart();
+                    if (mainPart) {
+                        std::cout << qPrintable(mainPart->decodedText());
+                    } else {
+                        std::cout << "ERROR: no main body part";
+                    }
+                } else {
+                    std::cout << qPrintable(QString::fromUtf8(item.payloadData().constData()));
                 }
             }
+            if (!mItemArgs.isEmpty()) {         // not the last item
+                std::cout << "\n";                // blank line to separate
+            }
         }
     }