Rincewind was a coward and an unwitting clown, but he had several times saved the world in slightly puzzling circumstances. He was a luck sink, the Archchancellor had decided, doomed to be a lightning rod for the fates so that everyone else didn't have to. Such a person was worth all his meals and laundry (including an above-average level of soiled pants) and a bucket of coal every day even if he was, in Ridcully's opinion, a bit of a whiner. However, he was fast, and therefore useful.
"Look," said Rincewind, "a mysterious urn turns up and suddenly it's all about football. That bodes. It means something bad is going to happen."
"Come now, it could be something wonderful," Ridcully protested.
Rincewind appeared to give this due consideration. "Could be wonderful, will be dreadful. Sorry, that's how it goes."
Terry Pratchett, Unseen Academicals