Stones of the Dalai Lama — Ken Mitchell

Bob Harlow is an academic; Vern Cugnet, an auto mechanic. Besides this difference, Bob has another distinction: his once pleasant life in Bismarck, North Dakota, is going to hell. Terrible things are befalling Bob, his family and friends: strange infections and nasty infestations, thefts and accidents, one of which is fatal. Bob realizes that the jinx is the result of what happened in Tibet.
At the end of a year-long sabbatical boondoggle in China, he took a sidetrip to a remote and sacred region of Tibet known as the Place of the Dead. There, thoughtlessly, he committed sacrilege. He casually pocketed two mani stones - engraved funeral markers - as souvenirs. Since that moment he seems to have been accursed.
So now he has no choice. No matter what the obstacles, he must return the sacred objects. Vern Cugnet, naive, crude and indomitable, volunteers to go along and the unlikely companions set out to undo the spell. The trek will take them through China, India and Nepal and involve them in border frays, encounters with holy hermits and bloodthirsty demons, and an audience with the Dalai Lama himself.
Stones of the Dalai Lama is an original, mystical and serious comedy about life, the afterlife, and what not to mess with in between.