Power hit destroys a hard disk on a file server that this pilot fish is responsible for, and he cleans up the mess as best he can.

"I figured out what I lost, and I restored the lost home directories of the affected users," says fish. "There were also home directories of users who had long since left the company, so I decided not to restore them.

"Unfortunately, I didn't have a list of active and inactive accounts, so it was not possible to know which ones to restore and which ones to forget about."

Two weeks pass, things are back to normal, and fish is working in the server room one day when he notices an unfamiliar face at the window in the server-room door.

He beckons to fish, who opens the door to talk with him.

"Did you fix it?" he asks fish.

"Fix what?"

"I haven't been able to log in for two weeks," stranger tells fish.

"How was I supposed to know that if he didn't notify me?" grumbles baffled fish. "How long did he think it was going to take me to notice? I guess it's fortunate he didn't wait for four weeks.

"I then restored his lost files."