After bootstrapping Mac OS 8.6 onto my clamshell using OS X10.2.8, I wanted to delete OS X off the partition. This and some other files all went to the trash. When I went to empty the trash, it told me I had over 31,000 files in the trash that will be deleted. Waiting and watching the file count get lower and lower, at about 400 files left to delete I saw the file count turn negative! It overflowed I’m pretty sure. The file count kept getting lower and lower, it would have gone much lower had I not needed to get these files off the 3GB HDD ASAP and stopped it after the pic.
To fix this, just take some files out of the trash. I successfully deleted about 10,000 files in one go without this bug occurring. Then you can repeat until the trash is completely empty.