People used to call me from work to ask how the installation at their home was going....

I would say, "well there's some bad news and some good news.....the bad news is that Dave had a small electrical problem which started a bit of a fire......but the good news is that when Harry drilled through the water pipe the flood put the fire out....."

There would be a good five second delay whilst they mentally processed that info and then worked out that surely I must be joking.....

The resultant relief that everything was in fact okay distracted them from their original purpose of the call - micro managing from afar...!