Let's make that compile :) and not return true if there are only directories:

sub AreThereFiles {
    opendir DIR, "/path/to/nowhere" or die "That will linger: $!\n";
    while (my $foo = readir DIR ) {
        chomp $foo;
        next if ( $foo =~ m/^\.\.?$/ );
        next unless (-f $foo);
        closedir DIR;
        return 1;
    }
    closedir DIR;
    return 0;
}
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I put the -X test in there because the original poster mentioned looking for files. If the existence of a sub-directory is appropriate, you can leave it out.