A random act of kindness and a dollop of something cold and creamy put the spring in Crickhowell’s step last Sunday when visitors to the town were treated to lashings of free ice cream.

Free ice cream you scream. How so? Well, it was all courtesy of a stranger’s philanthropic gesture.

A kindly visitor who fell in love with the old world charm of Crickhowell felt there was no better way to celebrate the little Powys town than to sweeten the experience of everyone who paid a visit to Crickhowell’s Pavlova coffee shop.

Last week a mysterious envelope arrived at Pavlova, stamped with a Manchester postage mark.

Upon opening the little package, the Pavlova team were shocked to discover it contained £200 and a letter which read, “Can you please give a free ice cream to the first 22 people who order an ice cream on April 22. I have enclosed the money that should cover this. If there’s anything left over please put balance in collection pot. Can you please give out the notes to the people who get the free ice creams. Thanks.”

And on the day when the sun was high and the skies were blue, customer after customer ordered their creamy delights, only to be told, ‘Your money is no good here. These ice-creams are on the house.’

As you can imagine, such unexpected generosity was met with squeals of delights.

Upon the benevolent benefactor’s request, the ecstatic ice-cream lovers were also given little notes which read, “‘Your ice cream today has been paid for you by a random act of kindness. I have no connection with Pavlova other than a regular visit to the Crickhowell area every summer. It’s a beautiful area! Hope you enjoy your ice-cream and share the love.”

After gorging themselves senseless on ice cream, beaming punters took to Twitter to share their euphoria.

Mikey Goodman tweeted, “Just got back to Crickhowell from a night out in Bristol. Called into Pavlova Coffee for an ice-cream only to find out it had already been paid for by a kindly ice-cream based philanthropist.”

Claire Preece wrote, “My son has just received a random act of kindness thanks to Pavlova Coffee. What a wonderful concept and certainly teaches great values and behaviours. Apparently it was a lovely ice-cream - orange fruit ice! Than you whoever you are.”

Pavlova Manager Claire Stephens told the Chronicle, “We gave away somewhere between 40 to 50 free ice-creams on the day.

“Everyone who got one was very pleasantly surprised. “It was a lovely gesture and we were very honoured to have been picked for such a welcome random act of kindness.”