SLPT: Before taking what you think is the biggest shit of your life in the restroom of someone you barely know, make yourself a favor and flush the toilet once to make sure it is functional.
It's a good tip, but shitty.
This just happened to me in the guest bathroom of someone I barely knew. The bathroom was meters away from the meeting.
Yeha, but it was understandable because it was a clogged pipe, so there was no way to tell just by looking at it. He didn't know and obviously apologized... Anyways, the night was ruined for me at that point.
How does a toilet pipe get clogged without the last person who flushed it realizing? The previous flush would not have gone down. I think your host was trying to save face. Seriously, you should not feel bad about what happened. If anything, you should feel a little mad that your host fucked up.
If the tank isn't filling for whatever reason just take off the lid and fill it with a water glass from the sink, or whatever is on hand. Once it's filled it will flush. Unless it's just totally blocked down below.
So let's say I need to take a monster dump, and I test the toilet as you suggest, and I discover that it is not functional. Assuming it is the only toilet within reasonable distance, now what?