Think out of the box !!!

 I came across this question recently on web radio. 

It is a straight forward question. But the answer to the question is got when we think out of the box !!

Question

Sam and Sarah saw seven sharks while swimming. How many     ' s ' are there in the sentence ?

At the first glance at the question itself, we start counting the number of s.

Thinking like that, the answer would be 7.

Now when we think out of the box, question appears like this.

There are 2 sentences. 

First one :   Sam and Sarah saw seven sharks while swimming.

Second one :  How many ' s ' are there in the sentence.

Both of these sentences can be taken into consideration separately. 

Now taking the second sentence separately into consideration, 

How many ' s ' are there in the sentence  ? 

Treat it like a independent question. 

Answer  :  1. 

In the word sentence, we find letter '  s  ' only once  !!!