J2.5:Query Limits broken in 2.5.15
From Joomla! Documentation
Modules that involve selecting a limit number of articles in Joomla 2.5.15 ignore their limit.
Versions affected
General Information
This pertains only to Joomla! version(s):- 2.5.15
What is the cause
This is because a sanity check was backported into J2.5 from J3.x that didn't function correctly.
How to fix
Please update to 2.5.16