2, 3, 5, 9, 17, _ What is the next number in the sequence?

There are a number of books on a shelf. If one book is the 4th from the left and 6th from the right, how many books are on the shelf?

A Club organizes a Running Race, and John, Jacob, Minda, and Tony participated.

The results are as follows

John beats Jacob
Minda beats Toni
Toni beats John

Who came first in the race?

A worker is to perform work for you for seven straight days. In return for his work, you will pay him 1/7th of a bar of gold per day. The worker requires a daily payment of 1/7th of the bar of gold. What and where are the fewest number of cuts to the bar of gold that will allow you to pay him 1/7th each day?

If you go to the movies and you're paying, is it cheaper to take one friend to the movies twice, or two friends to the movies at the same time?

In a rainy season, one day 3 huge ladies walked under a normal-sized umbrella.
The umbrella is not huge enough to accommodate all 3 ladies yet not a single lady got wet. Why?

Given that

(78)^9 = 6
And (69)^4 = 11

Can you find out

(99)^2 =?

(Note: This is Logical, not Mathematical)

Pronounced as one letter,
And written with three,
Two letters there are,
And two only in me.
I am double, I am single,
I am black blue and grey,
I am read from both ends,
And the same either way.

A woman shoots her husband.

Then she holds him under water for over 5 minutes.

Finally, she hangs him.

But 5 minutes later they both go out together and enjoy a wonderful dinner together.

How can this be?

I have 50 feet long of cloth, I need to create 50 handkerchiefs each size of 1 foot. I take one minute to cut a 1-foot handkerchief. So how long will it take to cut 50 handkerchiefs?