Using eight eights and addition only, can you make 1000?

One fine day, an intellectual man came to the emperor's court with the aim of testing Birbal's wittiness. In order to do this, he challenged Birbal to answer his question and hence prove that he was as intelligent and witty as he was said to be.
He asked Birbal, Do you want me to ask one difficult question or a hundred easy ones?
Since both Akbar and Birbal had had a tough day and were eager to leave, Birbal hastily told the intellectual to ask him a single difficult question.
Intellectual: OK. Tell me what came first into the world, the egg or the chicken?
Of course, the chicken, Birbal replied with a smile.
This time with a note of victory in his voice, the intellectual asked Birbal, How will you demonstrate that?
What did Birbal say?

Today is John's birthday.
A year ago, John had five candles and he lit all the candles except the one at the last.
Now he is going to light all the candles.

How old is John Today?

(He is not five today.....)

No one wants to have it, but if one got it, he does not want to lose it. What is It?

You have to put a letter on the following to make it a meaningful word. The only challenge is that you can't use 'E'.

S E Q U E N C _

How many Watermelons are there in the below picture?

John has played 50 ODI's and his average is 50. How many runs should he score in his 51st ODI, so that his average score jumps to 51?

Can you find out what is missing?

1 3 5
2 4 ?

Hint: It's not six. Think out of the box.

For this puzzle, you might have to find logic in something illogical. But hey, it's fun and a healthy little break from your strenuous puzzle-solving sessions.

Can you decipher the meaning in the following cluster of letters?

ITIT,NCENTCENT

John gave half of the apples he had plus one more to Jacob. He gave half of the remaining ones plus one more to James. Now, John was left with just one apple.

Can you find out how many did he have in the beginning?