Another option is to set your autoload like this:
sub AUTOLOAD {
my ($self) = @_;
# don't do any work if we are being called for DESTROY
next if(substr($AUTOLOAD, -7) eq 'DESTROY');
$AUTOLOAD =~ /.*::get(_\w+)/
or die "No such method: $AUTOLOAD";
exists $self->{$1}
or die "No such attribute: $1";
return $self->{$1}
}
Notice how it returns if this is a call to destroy?
AUTOLOAD will never be called if there is a DESTROY method. I imagine
sub DESTROY {} is faster, but the logic seems easier to maintain and less people will be asking "Why does my autoload work in this class and not that one?"