Lets take the nicer form of what you have as posted in another answer
$args = array(
's' => 'the',
'posts_per_page' => 5,
'paged' => 1
);
$custom_query = new WP_Query($args);
I strongly recommend you use WP_Query with an argument array and pass in via the constructor like this.
Lets look at your arguments closer.
'paged' => 1
Paged is the page number to show.
This says, show page 2. You’re dealing with computers, and the first number is 0, not 1.
Change to:
'paged' => 0
You also missed out a call to wp_reset_postdata(); to clean up after yourself, and you never specified the post type, post status, and wether the search box is doing a standard search or a search modified by a plugin