What is black when you buy it, red when you use it, and gray when you throw it away?

Sherlock breaks into a crime scene. The victim is the owner who is slumped dead on a chair and have a bullet hole in his head. A gun lies on the floor and a cassette recorder is found on the table. On pressing the play button, Sherlock hears the message 'I have committed sins in my life and now I offer my soul to the great Lord' and followed a gunshot Sherlock smiles and informed the police that's its a murder.

Why did he think so?

If 5 cats catch 5 mice in 5 minutes, how long will it take one cat to catch a mouse?

Can you replace the X (both small and big x) with the numbers between 1 to 19 such that all the rows of 3 numbers between X (big x) sum to 23?

Thomas has missed an excessive number of days of school, so he must meet with Principal Davis. Mr. Davis asks him "Why on Earth have you missed so many days?" Thomas replies "There just isn't enough time for school. I need 8 hours of sleep a day, which adds up to about 122 days a year. Weekends off is 104 days a year. Summer vacation is about 60 days. If I spend about an hour on each meal, that's 3 hours a day or 45 days a year. I need at least 2 hours of exercise and relaxation time each day to stay physically and mentally fit, adding another 30 days. Add all of that up and you get about 361 days. That only leaves 4 days for school." The principal knows Thomas is full of it, but can't figure out why. Where is Thomas going wrong?

It is a six-letter word.
The first four letters are me.
The second and last letters are the same.
The fourth second and last letter is payment.

Who is it?

You have two rectangular wires.

Both of them have property that when you light the fire from one end , it will take 60 minutes to get completely burn.

However, they do not burn at consistent speed (i.e it might be possible 1st 20% burn in 50 minutes and 80% can burn in 10 minutes).

So how could you measure 45 minutes ?

A thief enters a store and threatens the clerk, forcing her to open the safe. The clerk says, “The code for the safe is different every day, and if you hurt me you’ll never get the code.” But the thief manages to guess the code on his own. How did he do it?

It has horns but can’t beep. It is like to bleat but It is not a sheep. What is it?

Can you solve below mathematical equation?

2^1234 - 2^1233