Replace the question mark with the correct number.

Can you make a fire with just a single stick?

What number comes next in the series?

5 15 5 18 5 24 14 20 _

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

Three men in a cafe order a meal the total cost of which is $15. They each contribute $5. The waiter takes the money to the chef who recognises the three as friends and asks the waiter to return $5 to the men.

The waiter is not only poor at mathematics but dishonest and instead of going to the trouble of splitting the $5 between the three he simply gives them $1 each and pockets the remaining $2 for himself.

Now, each of the men effectively paid $4, the total paid is therefore $12. Add the $2 in the waiters pocket and this comes to $14. Where has the other $1 gone from the original $15?

These types of puzzles are known as charades. What you have to do is find two words that are referred to in the first stanza and the second stanza and put them together to form the third word in the third stanza.

Just for example, if my first refers to 'off' and my second refers to 'ice', then my whole will be office.

My first is present - future's past -
A time in which your lot is cast.

My second is my first of space
Defining people's present place.

My whole describes a lack of site -
A place without length, breadth, or height.

I am working in a bus company. The company recently went under expansion and therefore there was not enough room for all the buses. As a result, twelve buses had to be stored outside.

If the company decides to expand the garage space by forty percent, enough space to accommodate the current buses will be created leaving enough space for twelve more buses if the need arises in future.

Can you calculate the number of buses that the company owns at present?

One night, Louis and Adam were sitting together. Adam was watching a movie while his wife Louis was reading a mystery book. Suddenly the power went out and Adam decided to go to bed, but strangely Louis kept on reading. There was no artificial light around, so Louis kept on reading. How come?

One day, all the courtiers from Akbar's court were gathered in the assembly hall when one of them told the Emperor that all his valuables had been stolen by a thief the previous night.
This shocked the Emperor to his core as the place where that courter stayed was the most secured in the kingdom. The Emperor thought that it is not at all possible for an outsider to enter into the courtier's house and steal the valuables. Only another courtier could commit this crime. He quickly called Birbal to identify the thief.
Birbal thought for a while and successfully solved the mystery by identifying the thief in just one statement.
What did Birbal say?

Bopanna was working on a murder case when he received a message about the location of the murder weapon.
The message was encrypted as below.

"deb mitciv eht edisni neddih si nopaew redrum ehT"

Tell me the location of the murder weapon.