Find the next number in the sequence

5 12 24 36 ?

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?

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?

Can you replace the question mark with the correct number in the below table sequence?

If two fifty-foot ropes are suspended from a forty-foot ceiling that is twenty feet apart, how much rope will you be able to steal if you have a knife?

What has a ring but no finger?

James bond was pushed out of an aeroplane without any parachute.
He survived, How come?

Sherlock Holmes was challenged to make a pre-drawn line smaller without erasing it. He did it in fractions of seconds. How?

Kareena is older than Katrina and younger than Karishma. Isabelle is younger than Bipasha and Karishma. Bipasha is older than Karishma. If Kareena and Isabelle are the same age, who's the youngest?

You are a thief and you are being punished for your crime. People have tied your head down on a tree with a rope that has been anchored in the ground. A candle is burning below the rope which is slowly burning it away. Just below your head, a Lion has been left loose and is waiting for you to drop down on the ground so he can have you as his lunch.

You have to survive the scenario. How will you do it?