This reminds me of ‘The Jules Test’. Popularised (hyper locally) by my friend Jules.

When renting a flat, simply head straight to the bathroom and flush the toilet. If the toilet flush is good, the flat is fine.

You can use "20,000 leagues under the sea" instead of Moby Dick.

Both were written at the same time, both deal with ocean adventures, and both (IMHO) are much longer than they need to be.

Then you can have multiple Jules tests, depending on occasion!