What can you catch but never throw?

A chess tournament is taking place on knock-out terms (the one who loses the match is out of the game).
(a) If 10 matches are played in total, how many players participated?
(b) If 20 players took part in the tournament, how many matches were played?

A small town is visited by an ice-cream truck every day. On the first day of February, the truck visits as usual and 5 children, one from each of the first 5 houses on the street buys an ice cream that is of the different flavor from each other along with a completely different topping.

Go through the details below and find out which child lives in which house and bought which ice-cream flavor with which topping:

1. Jim lives between the child who bought the Raspberry topping and the child who bought mango ice cream.

2. Joyce, whose house has an even number, bought the cherry topping. Nancy does not live next to Joyce.

3. The blackcurrant ice cream had no topping.

4. The child who lives in house number 2 had the butterscotch ice cream. The child in house number 3 did not have chocolate ice cream.

5. Mike had banana ice cream. He hates banana cherry.

6. The child who had the cashew topping lives in house number 5. Dustin does not live in house number 4.

Please note that the odd numbered houses and the even numbered houses are located on the exactly opposite sides of the street.

A cat, a dog and a monkey were stolen. 3 suspects got caught: Harish, Manoj and Tarun. All we know is each person stole one animal, but we do not know who stole which. Here are the investigation statements. Harish said: Tarun stole the cat. Manoj said: Tarun stole the dog. Tarun said: They both were lying. I did not steal the cat or the dog. Later on, the police found out the man who stole the monkey told a lie. The man who stole the cat told the truth. Can you find out who stole which?

Today, I celebrated my 32nd birthday but I was born in 1972.
How is this possible?

Alex is stranded on an island covered in forest.
One day, when the wind is blowing from the west, lightning strikes the west end of the island and sets fire to the forest. The fire is very violent, burning everything in its path, and without intervention the fire will burn the whole island, killing the man in the process.

There are cliffs around the island, so he cannot jump off.

How can the Alex survive the fire? (There are no buckets or any other means to put out the fire)

John was running from 40 thieves. John has got 3 gold boxes which weigh as 4kg, 2kg, and 1kg respectively. A witty man asked John to stay with him for seven days in exchange for 1kg gold per day. John needs to stay there for seven days and also do not want to give the witty man any advance. How can John pay for his seven days stay?

A man desired to get into his work building, however he had forgotten his code.
However, he did recollect five pieces of information
* Fifth number + Third number = 14
* The fourth number is one more than the second number.
* The first number is one less than twice the second number.
* The second number and the third number equals 10.
* The sum of all five numbers is 30.

What is the code ?

Until it is measured, not known. Yet how you miss it when it has gone. What is it?

It comprises roots which nobody sees,
Much taller than those trees,
Up and up it goes,
Still it never grows?