in reply to return if defined

Another possibility... 

use PerlX::Perform;
use return::thence;

sub my_find_or_create {
  # ...
  perform { return::thence $_ } wherever $self->find_by_something(@arg
+s);
  # ...
}

[download]
perl -E'sub Monkey::do{say$_,for@_,do{($monkey=[caller(0)]->[3])=~s{::}{ }and$monkey}}"Monkey say"->Monkey::do'

In Section Seekers of Perl Wisdom