Find the Next Number in the Sequence

2 9 3 1 8 4 3 6 5 7 ?

I can sizzle like bacon,
I am made with an egg,
I have plenty of backbone, but lack a good leg,
I peel layers like onions, but still remain whole,
I can be long, like a flagpole, yet fit in a hole.

There are 2 people near the river and both of them want to get on the other side. The boat can only take one of them. But they got across.
How?

A dead body is found outside a multi-story multinational company. The case is reported and a homicide detective is called on the crime scene.

He looks at the body and then towards the building. From the position of the body, it is evident that the victim committed suicide. He goes to the first floor of the building and then walks in the direction of the dead body, opens the window and toss a coin in the air.

He goes to second floor and again repeats the process. He keeps doing this till he is done on all the floors. Then he returns back to the floor and tells his team that it is a murder.

How in heaven did he deduce that?

To tease, King Akbar told his most clever advisor Birbal to give his daughter one thing that she can eat when hungry, drink if she feels thirsty and can burn if she feels cold. King Akbar was shocked when Birbal gave Akbar's daughter one such thing that satisfies all of the above.

What did Birbal give to Akbar's daughter?

I am a normal creature, but I have five hands. I can even have more but even then I will be considered normal.

Who am I?

I cry without having a voice.
I fly without having wings.
I bite without having teeth.
I whisper without a mouth.

Who am I?

Replace the alphabet with the number such that the below equation holds.

HAPPY
+ DIWALI
--------------
HDLALA
--------------

How can you make the following equation true by drawing only one straight line: 5+5+5=550 ?

Birbal was jester, counsellor, and fool to the great Moghul emperor, Akbar.
The villagers loved to talk of Birbal's wisdom and cleverness,
and the emperor loved to try to outsmart him.
One day Akbar (emperor) drew a line across the floor.
"Birbal," he ordered, "you must make this line shorter, but you cannot erase any bit of it."
Everyone present thought the emperor had finally outsmarted Birbal.
It was clearly an impossible task.
Yet within moments the emperor and everyone else present had to agree that Birbal had made the line shorter without erasing any of it.
How could this be?