Does a playstation still work in the event of water damage?

I know a stupid question, but one of my friends had borrowed my playstation and now says it had a water damage, I'm afraid he's lying to me and just wants to keep it longer than was agreed. So my question would be, does a playstation still work after a water damage? He supposedly says this:

but how should a device work when it is broken or has water damage?!

It doesn't really seem broken. The way it looks, the operating system is shot. Go to YouTube, look for re-import Playstation operating system and there are tons of tutorials on how to fix the problem. Already had this case myself.

Thank you, then my fear was correct that he is just lying to me

Or he doesn't know any better. He can't use them directly in this state either.