I faced some difficulty while attempting a translation of the story below, especially the part about the sleeve. Does it refer to the shirt sleeve or the rope sleeve?

Please feel free to comment or suggest a better translation.

Source text:

Translation:

I will not punish anyone specific among you

A number of wise old man narrated to me this story:

A thief stole five hundred dinars from a man. Soon, a number of accused suspects were captured and brought to the region’s ruler to be put on trial.

The ruler made a speech to the suspects: “I will not accuse anyone specific among you. Instead, I have left a lengthy rope inside a room which is dark and without a window for light to enter. Each one of you should get into the room, hold the rope, and run your hands over the surface of the rope from one end towards the other end and then exit the room. (1) The rope will fold itself to form a cuff around the hands of the thief.”

Actually, the rope’s surface was covered with black powder before the session in the dark room began.

When the accused suspects entered the windowless room, each one of them, except the real thief, run their hands over the surface of the rope under total darkness, not being aware that the rope has previously been dusted with black power. Once the accused suspects came out from the dark room, the ruler recognized that one of the suspects has his hands clean while the rest has their’s blackened. Therefore, he immediately identified him as the thief and proved his case without doubt.

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Translated by Wai

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Notes:

1. I initially include the following sentence as part of the translation : [“After that, each one of you should insert your hands into the rope’s sleeve and pull it out.”] However, I decided to remove it later. The portion, despite having its meaning present in the source text, is not necessary in order to comprehend the whole story.