Don’t Touch That Fuse

I woke from a dream in which I was surrounded by three offended, if not angry, electricians.

In the dream, I had done a bad thing.

I had walked up upon three electricians—all of whom were gathered around an electrical control box operating a series of conveyer belts located immediately behind the box.  “Kinda quiet around here,” I joked.  “Normally I can’t hear myself think.”

“Belts crashed,” the nearest electrician, a bearded man, told me. “We’ve been troubleshooting to see if we can fire up the belts again.”

I appraised the rows of contactors, motor starters, timers, and rainbows of bundled wires connecting all the components together.  At the bottom of the controller, I saw a small fuse block holding a single fuse.  I noticed that one of the other electricians was holding a digital multimeter in his hands.  “Mind if I borrow that?” I asked.

Using a screwdriver, that somehow appeared in my back pocket, I pried the fuse from the holding clips.  I tested for continuity with the multimeter.

“There’s your problem,” I announced.  “Fuse is shot.”

“Hmmf,” said the electrician as I handed him his meter again.  I also handed him the fuse.

"Why don’t you to see about rustling up a fuse,” the bearded man told the other electricians.  After they had walked away, he turned to me.  “You did a bad thing here.  You checked the fuse.”

“Why is that bad?  The fuse was blown.  I fixed the problem.  I was taught to always check the fuse as a first step.”

“That’s not the point.  The point is, you never check another man’s fuse.  You might make him look bad.”

--Mitchell Hegman.