diff --git a/doc/source/whatsnew/v1.3.0.rst b/doc/source/whatsnew/v1.3.0.rst
index 69af8b500f790..30212b1e394a3 100644
--- a/doc/source/whatsnew/v1.3.0.rst
+++ b/doc/source/whatsnew/v1.3.0.rst
@@ -831,6 +831,7 @@ I/O
 - Bug in :func:`read_excel` raising ``AttributeError`` with ``MultiIndex`` header followed by two empty rows and no index, and bug affecting :func:`read_excel`, :func:`read_csv`, :func:`read_table`, :func:`read_fwf`, and :func:`read_clipboard` where one blank row after a ``MultiIndex`` header with no index would be dropped (:issue:`40442`)
 - Bug in :meth:`DataFrame.to_string` misplacing the truncation column when ``index=False`` (:issue:`40907`)
 - Bug in :func:`read_orc` always raising ``AttributeError`` (:issue:`40918`)
+- Bug in :func:`read_csv` and :func:`read_table` misinterpreting arguments when ``sys.setprofile`` had been previously called (:issue:`41069`)
 - Bug in the conversion from pyarrow to pandas (e.g. for reading Parquet) with nullable dtypes and a pyarrow array whose data buffer size is not a multiple of dtype size (:issue:`40896`)
 
 Period
diff --git a/pandas/io/parsers/readers.py b/pandas/io/parsers/readers.py
index 796d44dc7877a..55e3e14a0969d 100644
--- a/pandas/io/parsers/readers.py
+++ b/pandas/io/parsers/readers.py
@@ -540,7 +540,8 @@ def read_csv(
     float_precision=None,
     storage_options: StorageOptions = None,
 ):
-    kwds = locals()
+    # locals() should never be modified
+    kwds = locals().copy()
     del kwds["filepath_or_buffer"]
     del kwds["sep"]
 
@@ -620,7 +621,8 @@ def read_table(
     memory_map=False,
     float_precision=None,
 ):
-    kwds = locals()
+    # locals() should never be modified
+    kwds = locals().copy()
     del kwds["filepath_or_buffer"]
     del kwds["sep"]
 
diff --git a/pandas/tests/io/parser/common/test_common_basic.py b/pandas/tests/io/parser/common/test_common_basic.py
index 572bc09c96886..fe68597d11f0b 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/io/parser/common/test_common_basic.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/io/parser/common/test_common_basic.py
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 from io import StringIO
 import os
 from pathlib import Path
+import sys
 
 import numpy as np
 import pytest
@@ -631,6 +632,20 @@ def test_read_table_equivalency_to_read_csv(all_parsers):
     tm.assert_frame_equal(result, expected)
 
 
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("read_func", ["read_csv", "read_table"])
+def test_read_csv_and_table_sys_setprofile(all_parsers, read_func):
+    # GH#41069
+    parser = all_parsers
+    data = "a b\n0 1"
+
+    sys.setprofile(lambda *a, **k: None)
+    result = getattr(parser, read_func)(StringIO(data))
+    sys.setprofile(None)
+
+    expected = DataFrame({"a b": ["0 1"]})
+    tm.assert_frame_equal(result, expected)
+
+
 def test_first_row_bom(all_parsers):
     # see gh-26545
     parser = all_parsers