Take a look at this node Why I hate File::Find and how I (hope I) fixed it and try this

#!/usr/bin/perl

use File::Find;
use strict;
my $country;

sub getCountry{
  my $locn = shift;
  my $dir ='c:/temp/countries/';
  find(sub{ txtsearch($locn) }, $dir);
}

sub txtsearch {
  my $locn = shift;
  if (-f $_) {
    open my $fh, "<", $_ or do {
      warn qq(Unable to open "$File::Find::name": $!); #checks permiss
+ions
      return;
    };
   
    while(<$fh>) {
      if (/\Q$locn\E/) {
        my $country = (split '/', $File::Find::name)[-1];
        print "$locn found in $country\n";
        last ; #stops searching once found
      } 
    }      
  }
};

getCountry("NY");
getCountry("London");
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