$a = find_items("26");
print "$a";

sub find_items {
 $idd = shift;

 $sth3 = $dbh->prepare("SELECT category FROM items WHERE category = '$idd'");
 $sth3->execute or die $dbh->errstr;
 $rvf = $sth3->rows;
 $a += $rvf;

 $sth23 = $dbh->prepare("SELECT id FROM category WHERE parent = '$idd'");
 $sth23->execute or die $dbh->errstr;
 while ($idg = $sth23->fetchrow_array) {
  $item = find_items($idg);
  $a += $item;
 }

 return($a);

 }