Really? An overly short chain can make shifting onto the big sprocket¹ an unpleasant, crunchy and sometimes futile endeavour, strain the cage spring or even break the chain. The way to brake the frame² is to put the derailleur in the spokes, and with a short chain you probably couldn't get past the big sprocket; a poorly adjusted derailleur low limit has the potential to do that anyway.


​​​​​​¹ Or big ring if it's already on the big sprocket, but we wouldn't do that would we?
² At least the gear hanger but we don't care too much about that, maybe the dropout which is bad.