The he-goat and the snake were husband and wife. The he-goat usually sent the snake to go and bring food from different places for them to eat. The snake went to the house of the hyena to take food and it brought it home to the he-goat. The he-goat ate and enjoyed the food. It then requested that the snake should return to where it brought the food and bring more. The snake went to hyena’s house again and collected more food and took it to the he-goat.
The he-goat ate and asked the snake to go and bring more. The snake brought more food from the hyena’s house, but the he-goat ate all and still was not satisfied. Meanwhile, all the time the snake was going to the hyena’s house to take the food, the hyena was not at home. The he-goat told the snake to direct it to where it got the food.
“Let me go there myself and eat as much as I want, instead of you going to and fro,” the he-goat suggested.
The snake directed it to the hyena’s house. The he-goat got there, saw lots of food, and happily sat down to eat the food. While it was enjoying itself, the hyena came back. It saw the he-goat eating its food and angrily killed and ate the he-goat.
A boomerang tale from North Central Nigeria featured in A Selection of Nigerian Folktales (2018), edited by Bukar Usman.