If I may ask, how is the hot wire roaming loose? If im not mistaken most put a wire cap on the hot wires and electric tape if needed.
Not the safest thing to have hot wires running loose in the ceiling.
Either the braker would blow or God forbid cause an electrical fire if you have exposed wires in your ceiling.
Here are some examples of how the hot wire is roaming loose:
a mouse has nibbled at the insulation
a cockroach has nibbled at the insulation
some other creature has nibbled at the insulation
the person who installed it accidentally nicked some insulation and either didn't notice or pretended it didn't happen
old age combined with heat has caused the insulation to fray
Subsequently, a change in temperature causes a slight movement of the metal wire, causing it to make contact with some other metal.
If you want to talk about what's the safest thing, it's not the safest thing to forget about grounding either, yet somehow that happened.
If it was properly grounded and then the hot wire made contact with any part that's grounded, that would blow the circuit breaker saving you from getting a shock. But with no grounding, you don't have that protection.