A"A often points out that, unfortunately, Rabbanim today are often valued based on how machmir they are. The more one is oser, the better. Knowledge is only secondary to all this. He illustrates this with the following story:
One erev Pesach, a newly-hired Rabbi was sitting in his office, preparing a derasha. A congregant bursts into his office, nearly in tears.
"Rabbi, something went wrong and I don't know what to do!" she said frantically. "I was hanging up my tablecloths after washing them to use for the seder tonight. After it was all up on the line, I remembered that I forgot to do hag'ala on my laundry hanging rope! What should I do? I won't have tablecloths for the seder!"
"Don't worry," the Rabbi told her, "you can use the tablecloths on Pesach."
Outraged, she stormed out of his office. Taken aback by her response, the Rabbi watched her from the window as she left the bet kinesset. She met one of her friends on her way out, and the Rav heard her tell her friend the following:
"What were they thinking when they hired this new Rabbi?! He's a complete idiot! I went to him with an important question, and he dismissed it without giving it any thought! Our previous Rabbi would always hear my questions out, investigate the topic, read up on the question, and only then would he tell me the halacha. This guy is scamming us!"
The Rav decided to remedy the situation before people start spreading rumors about him. He ran outside and stopped her.
"Excuse me," he called after her, "can you please repeat your question? I'm so sorry, but I was so busy preparing my derasha that I didn't hear you out properly."
"Okay," she said, "I accidentally hung my Pesach tablecloths on a line that wasn't kashered for Pesach!"
"Oh no!" he said. "What were you thinking?! Do you have a spare tablecloth?? Was it intentional or by accident?"
"Please Rabbi!" she pleaded, "it was an accident! I don't have any other tablecloths and I don't know what to do now!"
"Okay, okay, I'll see what I can do. Come back to my office in an hour."
When she came back, she found his desk littered with books. Aware that he was being watched, he walked over to the bookshelf, mumbling to himself and stroking his beard, and procured the largest, oldest-looking volume of the Ri"f he could find. ignoring her, he placed in on his desk, flipped it open to a random page, and stared at it intently for five minutes.
Finally he looked up, saw her there, and said, "Look, since you have no other tablecloths, and since you didn't do it on purpose, there are opinions that you can rely on. I'll let you use the tablecloths this year, but don't do it again! Next year you need to be extra vigilant to not mix up your hanging lines!"
He watched as she walked out of his office. Outside the bet kinesset, she bumped into her friend again.
"I'm sorry," she told her friend, "I seem to have been mistaken. The new Rav is great!"
