code: def _to_dict(objects):
      '''
      Potentially interprets a string as JSON for usage with mongo
      '''
      try:
          if isinstance(objects, six.string_types):
              objects = salt.utils.json.loads(objects)
      except ValueError as err:
          log.error("Could not parse objects: %s", err)
          raise err
  
      return objectf _to_dict(objects):
      '''
      Potentially interprets a string as JSON for usage with mongo
      '''
      try:
          if isinstance(objects, six.string_types):
              objects = salt.utils.json.loads(objects)
      except ValueError as err:
          log.error("Could not parse objects: %s", err)
          raise err
  
      return objects
docs: Potentially interprets a string as JSON for usage with mongo