List of numbers to add

[Planeuge]

So, what I was going for, is first of all test if A + one of the Numbers was equal to the total I wanted, and got to this:

testlist=[5,8,23,-12]
total=15
init=7

def main(lis, valInit, valsearched):
    for i in lis:
        valInit+=i
        if valInit==total:
            return i
        valInit=7

print(main(testlist, init, total))

I picked the values so as they work.
Now, what I had planned was to set init (the initial value) to init+testlist[1] and then try with adding testlist[2], testlist[3] and testlist[4]. If it doesn't work, set init to init+testlist[1]+testlist[2] and try adding that value to one of the other values, and so on.
Again, excuse me if I'm not clear enough in my explanations

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So, I thought it might be much easier, if I keep using for loops, to use something like that:

for i in lis:
    for j in range(1, len(lis)):
        valInit=valInit+i+j
        if valInit==total:
            return i