Well he didn't know there wasn't any water until trying to flush. At least around here, our toilets have water in the bottom, and the way it flushes is you dump lots of water from the tank in, and it goes through this S bend thingymajiggy, and it's flushed, and new water is in the bottom. I dunno if other toilets work differently. But in our house, a dry toilet will flush once, and then it won't refill the tank, but there'll be water in the bowl. If you use it after this point, you might find yourself in a pickle. But you won't know there's no water till you try flushing.