Turning The Problem On Its Head

(I work at the local school helping the janitor with various things as well as cleaning after class. One day the janitor, a grumpy, mean, old man, asks me for help fixing a projector, as it is showing everything upside down.)

Me: “So, I think that the problem is that…”

Janitor: “I know what the problem is! Help me take the damn projection screen down.”

Me: “I really don’t think that’s the problem. We just have to reset the projector…”

Janitor: “You don’t know what you are talking about. Just help me damn it or go clean the bathrooms.”

(I just do what he says and spend the next hour ripping the projection screen off the wall seeing as it was fastened quite well. We even manage to break a piece off the top and end up replacing all of it. We put it back up, the only difference being that he turns the projection screen upside down. I’m laughing in my head the whole time by the way.)

Janitor: “Why isn’t it working?!”

Me: “Look, I told you. You can’t just turn it upside down. The projection screen isn’t the problem, and you just have to reset the projector itself.”

Janitor: “Well, why didn’t you say so.” *quite pissed off*

Me: “I did. I told you from the beginning.”

Janitor: “No, you didn’t. I’m telling the principal that the broken projector screen will come out of your pay.”

Me: “Fine with me.”

(He proceeded to tell the principal the whole story of how he tried to fix it by turning the screen upside down. The principal just looked at the janitor and asked if he was f***** joking. He then explained to him how projectors work. The janitor hasn’t asked me for help since. The principal, however, asks me regularly for help with things he doesn’t trust the janitor to do.)