diff --git a/public/app/features/plugins/sandbox/distortion_map.ts b/public/app/features/plugins/sandbox/distortion_map.ts
index 2989172874d1..dac4301cbde1 100644
--- a/public/app/features/plugins/sandbox/distortion_map.ts
+++ b/public/app/features/plugins/sandbox/distortion_map.ts
@@ -204,7 +204,10 @@ function distortInnerHTML(distortions: DistortionMap) {
     const pluginId = meta.id;
     return function innerHTMLDistortion(this: HTMLElement, ...args: string[]) {
       for (const arg of args) {
-        const lowerCase = arg?.toLowerCase() || '';
+        // NOTE: DOMPurify anti-tamper mechanism requires us to clone the string
+        // calling any method whatsoever on a string will cause the string to be tampered
+        // and DOMPurify will return empty strings
+        const lowerCase = String(arg || '').toLowerCase();
         for (const forbiddenElement of forbiddenElements) {
           if (lowerCase.includes('<' + forbiddenElement)) {
             logWarning(`Plugin ${pluginId} tried to set ${forbiddenElement} in innerHTML`, {
@@ -223,7 +226,7 @@ function distortInnerHTML(distortions: DistortionMap) {
       }
 
       if (isFunction(originalMethod)) {
-        originalMethod.apply(this, args);
+        return originalMethod.apply(this, args);
       }
     };
   }