What caused the Unicode error?

Question

Python

An error appears in this part of the code: Unicode equal comparison failed to convert both arguments to Unicode - interpreting them as being unequal.

if message.text =='Товары':
            bot.send_message(message.chat.id, 'Доступные товары')
        elif message.text =='Баланс':
            bot.send_message(message.chat.id, 'Ваш баланс '+balance+' руб.')
        else:
            bot.send_message(message.chat.id, 'Такой команды нет :/')

I looked for options on how to get rid of it, it did not help. Please tell me how to solve! Python 3.8