Shucks.  This isn't a sink, it's a pluming piece waiting to be made into a lamp.

I had a dishwasher that was never hooked up which produced quite a mess at a new home inspection.

But, never a sink with no water and no drain. 

"produced quite a mess at a new home inspection"

Yes, a dishwasher would. An inspector really has to be careful to look under things prior to running. I once turned on a kitchen sink, thought it sounded funny, opened it and the tail piece was dumping into a plastic trash can. Had I wanderered off for a few minutes, I would have come back to water all over the hardwood floor. 

I had a client jump into the shower at their new condo and a few minutes later one of the neighbors coming down the hall noticed water running.  The shower drain was not connected.  This was on the 9th floor and fortunately they caught it before much damage was done.  I'm not sure a home inspection would have caught it but I'm surprised the county building inspector didn't.

Cindy,

It passed the county inspection because, frankly, the code inspectors would never see anything like that unless it was by accident. Not really their fault, just not in the scope of what they do. They look at the big picture (is there plumbing basically?) but do not take the time to look at every outlet, drain, etc. They are, more so than a home inspector, counting on the professionals to do their job without errors. In condo inspections I always tell people on upper floors that a leak at their tub is less likely to be a problem for them than for the poor sap located below. Honestly, if a tub drain in a condo was not hooked and the person in the unit below was not around to squawk, as the water came down, a home inspector probably would not know there was a problem either --unless something sounded really weird. We are limited to what we see and we cannot access units below. Now, if there was a crawl space below, there we would see a leak that the code inspector would not. When the code inspector finishes inspecting the footing/foundation/crawl space, early in the project, he or she does not go back there again.

I have had an instance where the "second" kitchen sink was being used as a planter (filled with dirt and all) and sometimes people use the dishwasher and oven as "pantries."  You never know when to be careful so you kind of have to be careful all the time:)

At least when it is filled with dirt you have a pretty major clue that all is not as it should be. This looked okay till I got under it. Had there been water to the house if would have been a no brainer when the faucet did not work. It seemed very weird in an older home. A new place you would just think someone overlooked it.