The broken miracle
The novel starts with the narrator's personal account of how his mother took him to the mystic for healing, and then the miracle failed. But, when the ankle healed of its own accord, the mother praised the mystic and gave him credit. This irony sets the tone for the novel.
The dowry theft
Just to illustrate how truly abominable Ganesh's lack of integrity is, the novelist tells us about how he extorted a higher dowry from the funeral man's daughter. The irony is that he has the audacity to tell his new father-in-law that his dowry is not enough for the chore of taking his daughter as a wife.
The grumpy wife
The wife, Leela, seems to be a somewhat good judge of character. When she sees her Ganesh reading and reading, she notices that it's not reading that he could be paid for—it's writing. She leaves, and he writes a pithy book on religion, and she applauds him. This means that ironically, she set him on a path of pretending to be a religious authority when he's not.
The ironic ways of extortion
Ganesh extorts fees from his patients not just for massages but for actual literal miracles which the naked eye and see are not real. Ramlogan owns enough taxis in town to extort Ganesh of his wealth by raising the price of taxi fair. Leela manages to make a profitable man for herself by being a brat and then by leaving and going back to her dad.
The Years of Guilt
Instead of renouncing his power and giving away all his money to the poor, Ganesh writes a book about how sorry he feels about his sins, and he earns a tremendous amount from the instant bestseller. Not quite a gentleman's move.
