diff --git a/chfs-ng/cmd/chfs/main.go b/chfs-ng/cmd/chfs/main.go
index a83d0d7..3c211bd 100644
--- a/chfs-ng/cmd/chfs/main.go
+++ b/chfs-ng/cmd/chfs/main.go
@@ -110,7 +110,10 @@ func accountRulePath(rule string, roots []string) string {
 	}
 	rule = filepath.ToSlash(rule)
 	if !filepath.IsAbs(rule) {
-		return strings.Trim(rule, "/")
+		// CHFS section rules are filesystem paths. Do not silently rebase a
+		// relative rule onto --path; the original parser treats such a value
+		// as a literal path and it therefore does not match a virtual path.
+		return rule
 	}
 	for _, root := range roots {
 		r := filepath.Clean(root)