You can do this elegantly with throw/catch, like this:

In most languages, there is no clean equivalent for breaking out of a recursive algorithm that uses a recursive function. In Ruby, though, there is!

it's much faster—the stack frame does not have to be carried along the "thrown symbol", and no object is created. Lightweight nonlinear flow control.

Throw it's a more elegant way to use an exception-like system as a control flow.