Who is generally closer to the kids, mom or dad?

(it's a funny riddle)

A monk has a very specific ritual for climbing up the steps to the temple. First, he climbs up to the middle step and meditates for 1 minute. Then he climbs up 8 steps and faces east until he hears a bird singing. Then he walks down 12 steps and picks up a pebble. He takes one step up and tosses the pebble over his left shoulder. Now, he walks up the remaining steps three at a time which only takes him 9 paces. How many steps are there?

A bomb goes off.
Carnage.
One person, only a few feet away, survives! How can this be?

You knock a Table over in the library, and suddenly 20 eyes are looking at you.

What occurs twice in a week, once in a year but never in a day?

The product of three consecutive numbers is 7980.
Then the sum of these consecutive numbers would be?

Can you think of a smallest +ve number such that if we shuffle the digits of the number, the new number becomes double the original number?

I have branches, but no fruit, trunk or leaves. What am I?

A journalist was investigating a sacred cult in the jungles of Africa when he was caught by one of the person. He was confined in a cave till the leader arrived. The leader told him that he need to tell him a statement. If he thinks the statement is true, then the journalist head will be chopped off. If he thinks that the statement is false, his head will be smashed with a hammer.

What statement did the journalist make to survive?

There are three boxes of different sizes with three cupcakes inside each of the boxes in Christina's kitchen. At night her daughter wakes up and goes to the kitchen. She opens a box and eats all three cakes.

But in the morning Christina finds out that each box still had three cupcakes. How?